Video artist Bill Viola dies at 73
Since his first experiments, Bill Viola is counted among the pioneers of video art. In his works, the New York native explores life and death. Now, the American artist is deceased.
The New York video artist Bill Viola is dead. He passed away on a Friday at the age of 73, confirmed his longtime gallerist Jim Cohan. Prior to this, Viola's production studio had posted about his death on Instagram. Viola's wife and longtime artistic partner Kira Perov leads the studio in Long Beach, California. In the post, it is stated that Viola passed away due to the consequences of an Alzheimer's diagnosis.
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. He dealt with cycles of life, death, and rebirth in his works. Viola referred to his images as "visual poems." Notably, "Nantes Triptych," a triptych of three video screens showing a pregnant woman, a man floating vaguely in water, and his mother on her deathbed in a nursing home, gained fame. In 2016, Viola created the work "Mary" about the sorrowful mother Mary as a permanent installation for St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
International exhibitions of his works received much attention, including in 2017 in Florence, where he had already worked in the 70s, and in the Hamburg Deichtorhallen. The Paris Grand Palais, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the 46th Venice Biennale also showed his works. Gallery owner Cohan stated that he was always impressed by how Viola could combine technology with deeply felt poetry. Viola leaves behind his wife, two sons, Blake and Andrei.
Despite his contributions to video art and explorations of life and death, Bill Viola, the renowned American artist from New York, has sadly passed away. This news was confirmed by his longtime gallerist Jim Cohan, who highlighted Viola's unique ability to integrate technology with deep poetic sentiment in his entertainment pieces.
