Bohuslav "Woody" Vasulka (born Bohuslav Vašulka (20 January 1937,
Brno
Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
,
Czechoslovakia – 20 December 2019,
Santa Fe,
USA
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
) was one of the early pioneer
video artist
Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. ...
known for his solo work and collaboration with
Steina Vasulka
Steina Vasulka (born Steinunn Briem Bjarnadottir in 1940)
Soros Center for Contemporary Arts Budapest
, his wife. The VASULKAs, as they are sometimes called, were experimenting since early 1960s with images, video tapes, computer graphics and Digital Video Effecter (DVE), a technique that was important for television programmes.
Biography
Bohuslav Vasulka studied engineering at the Industrial Engineering School of Brno between 1952 and 1956. Later, he discovered the potential that technology could bring to art and decided to move to Prague in 1960 and study television and film production
at
the Prague Academy for Performing Arts at the Faculty of Film and Television throughout the period from 1960 to 1965.
His educational background and engineering skills would later stimulate him to work in the realm of media art. In the early 1960s, Woody Vasulka met his future wife
Steina Vasulka
Steina Vasulka (born Steinunn Briem Bjarnadottir in 1940)
Soros Center for Contemporary Arts Budapest
, Icelandic woman who was three years younger than him.
At that time she was studying languages and violin playing at the conservatory in
Prague, where she was granted a scholarship. They started working together and married in 1964.
A year after they settled in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, United States. The couple was in love with "America's boast of freedom, love of technology and promotion of independence". By that time, Woody Vasulka had filmed several documentaries and after relocating worked as an editor of industrial film projects at
Harvey Lloyd Productions
Harvey, Harveys or Harvey's may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Harvey'' (play), a 1944 play by Mary Chase about a man befriended by an invisible anthropomorphic rabbit
* Harvey Awards ("Harveys"), one of the most important awards ...
.
The Kitchen
The Kitchen was founded by Woody and Steina Vasulka in 1971. It is one of
New York City's
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
oldest nonprofit spaces, where multidisciplinary artists working in the fields of dance, music, performance, media art can participate and exhibit their art pieces. There are also literary events, artists' talks and lecture series being reguralry held.
Works
Solo works
* Vocabulary (fragment), 1974, video, 4
'29'', LIMA collection.
* Reminiscence (2012), 1974, video, 4
'52''.
* Reminiscence, 1974, video, 4
'52''.
* The Matter, 1974, video, 4
'02''.
* C-Trend, 1974, video, 8'29
''.
* Electromagnetic Objects, 1975 - 2006, video 33'58
''.
* Artifacts/Keysnow, 1980, video, 32
'19''.
* Artifacts, 1980, video, 22
'51''.
* The Commission, 1983, video, 39
'16''.
* The Commission, 1983, video, 45
'00''.
* Art of Memory, 1987, video, 36
'37''.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
* 1977 — Electronic Image in Film, Anthology Film Archive, New York (United States).
* 1983 — The Commission, Rising Sun Media Center, Santa Fe (United States).
* 1998 — ''Woody VASULKA, The Brotherhood: A Series of Six Interactive Media Constructions'', NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo (Japan).
* 1996 — A Retrospective Exhibition of Woody Vasulka's work, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
* 1994 — Federal Exhibition Hall, Bonn (Germany).
* 1994 — Lace Gallery, Los Angeles (United States).
* 1992 — Woody Vasulka is preparing an exhibition dedicated to the pioneers of electronic art for the Ars Electronica festival in Linz (Eigenwelt der Apparatewelt: Pioneers of Electronic Art).
* 1990 — Table 2: Automata (first in a series of six The Brotherhood installations), San Francisco (United States).
* 1975 — The first group exhibition of the Vasulkas at the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo (United States).
References
Further reading
Monographies
* Vasulka, W.: The Brotherhood. A Series of Six Interactive Media Constructions, NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo, 1998.
* Vasulka, W., Vasulka, S. : machine media. — San Francisco : San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1996.
* Vasulka, W., Vasulka, S. : Interaktiivisen Taiteen Näyttely = Exhibition of the interactive art. — Helsinki : Nykytaiteen Museo ; Espoo : Galleria Otso, 1992 .
* Eizykman, Claudie, Vasulka, Steina; Vasulka, Woody – Steina et Woody Vasulka, vidéastes: 1969-1984: 15 années d'images électroniques, analogiques et numériques., Paris: : CINE-MBXA/CINEDOC, 1984.
* Vasulka, Woody: Descriptions. Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1978.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasulka, Woody
1937 births
2019 deaths
Czech artists
Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States
People from Brno