Kim, Tschang Yeul & Paik, Nam June
2008.8.28~10.1
Gangnam Space
Not many people know about the friendship between the artist Kim Tschang Yeul (b.1929-) who painted water drops and had presented Korean art to the world, and the pioneering video artist Nam June Paik (1932-2006). They first met at the Kim Whanki’s house in New York in 1965 and continued to build their friendship up until Nam June Paik passed away in January 2006. Nam June Paik had helped Kim Tschang Yeul to make his first global debut and Kim first introduced Paik to Korea. In later 1960’s, Paik encouraged Kim to participate in the Avant garde Festival in Paris which finally led Kim to leave New York and settle down in Paris. Later, at the start of 1980’s, Kim introduced the video artist to Korea, which was followed by his first ever exhibition in Korea. In October 2006, a special memorial event for Nam June Paik was held at Grande Salle of Pompidou Centre in Paris. A video celebrating his life was shown at the first part of the event, and at the second part his friendship with great masters of our time was shared in his memory. Kim Tschang Yeul was there to speak and he shared three anecdotes in fluent French. He quoted Paik saying “Artists will need paper only to use it as toilet paper.” And the audience laughed. This exhibition consists of recent works of Kim Tschang Yeul from the mid 1980’s and 10 of Nam June Paik’s well known pieces. See the Asian spirit melted in Western media and the friendship of two great artists who have contributed a lot to Korean art.