Contemporary Art, 1960s–present

Contemporary Art and Technology

What is video art?

While artists such as Andy Warhol had experimented with film and video recordings, video art was born in 1965 when Fluxus artist Nam June Paik filmed the streets of New York City with his brand new Sony portable video camera and showed the videos mere hours later at a café. Video art (which is a medium, not a style, in the way that oil painting is a medium), represents a transition from mass media influence to television influence. Video art can take many forms, from use in sculpture and installations, to performances—and videos can be broadcast live or recorded and displayed in various settings. In 1996, Douglas Gordon won the British Turner Prize for his video work 24 Hour Psycho (1996). Contemporary video artists include Bill Viola (1951–), Matthew Barney (1967–) (creator of the Cremaster film series), and Canadian Stan Douglas (1960–), among many others.



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