The End of Video Art (and Television)

By Michael Nash
January 1, 1993

Article from Scratching the Belly of the Beast catalogue, 1994

The least that can be said is that we have witnessed the death of video art in the United States. By “video art” I mean the formal category defined by the discipline-specific Great Society arts funding, theoretical resistance to electronic mass culture, and the self-serving historiography and curators seeking job security. There are almost no “video” festivals in the U.S. anymore. The “blue-chip” video artists – Gary Hill, Nam June Paik, Bill Viola – have been absorbed by the traditional arts establishment, and now concentrate on creating collectible video installations.

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