Art - Pioneer of video art: Bill Viola is dead
New York-based video artist Bill Viola passed away on a Friday at the age of 73, confirmed his longtime gallerist Jim Cohan to the German Press Agency dpa. Previously, Viola's production studio had posted about his death on Instagram. Viola's wife and longtime artistic partner Kira Perov, who runs the studio in Long Beach, California, is reportedly the one who made the Instagram post. The post states that Viola passed away due to the complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Pioneer of Video Art
Viola was born on January 25, 1951, in the New York City borough of Queens. Since his early experiments in the 1970s, he is considered a pioneer of video art. In his works, he explored cycles of life, Death and rebirth. Viola referred to his images as "visual poems." Notable works include "Nantes Triptych," a triptych of three video screens that depicted a pregnant woman, a man floating vaguely in water, and his mother on her deathbed in a nursing home. In 2016, Viola created the work "Mary" for St. Paul’s Cathedral in London as a permanent installation, focusing on the sorrowful Mary as the Mother of Sorrows.
Technology with Poetry
International exhibitions of his works received significant attention, including in Florence, where he had worked in the 70s, and at the Hamburg Deichtorhallen, the Paris Grand Palais, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the 46th Venice Biennale.
Gallerist Cohan told dpa that he had always been impressed by how Viola could combine technology with deeply felt poetry. Viola leaves behind his wife, two sons, Blake and Andrei.
- Kira Perov, Ms. Viola's wife and long-term artistic partner, hails from Long Beach, California, in the United States of America.
- Bill Viola's production studio shared the news of his passing on their Instagram account, reaching out to a vast audience of art enthusiasts worldwide.
- Despite residing in New York, Viola's cultural background and creative inspiration can be traced back to his birthplace, Queens, a borough in the New York City metropolitan area.
- Viola's groundbreaking works in video art have been showcased internationally, including exhibitions in New York, Florence, Paris, Venice, and Hamburg, Germany.
- News of Bill Viola's passing coincided with the longtime gallerist Jim Cohan's recognition of the artist's ability to blend technology with profound personal poetry.
- In Long Beach, California, people gathered to pay their respects to the influential video artist, commemorating his life, work, and significant contributions to the global art community.
