From opera houses to museums and churches, Bill Viola’s monumental video works have left a lasting impression. A look back at the history and artistic sensibility of the American video artist, who died on 12 July 2024, whose reflections on time, life and death, the natural elements and spiritual states have left an indelible mark on the audiovisual landscape.
Suffering from Alzheimer’s disease since 2012, Bill Viola passed away peacefully at his home in California on 12 July. Born in 1951 in New York, he gave up his art studies at Syracuse University, which he found too conventional, to turn to a less standardised section, that of the experimental studio. It was at this point that he came into direct contact with the audiovisual world.
Initially attracted by electronic music, he turned to video before becoming an assistant to the Korean pioneer Nam June Paik (1932-2006). At a time when video art was still in its infancy, the young visual virtuoso produced his first large-scale video installations in the early 1970s. Alongside a number of avant-garde artists like himself, Bill Viola helped this new artistic movement to emerge, with his impeccable technique and innovative sound capture, video recording and editing processes.
A spiritual approach
While his art was influenced by the Italian painters of the Quattrocento (Giotto, Lorenzetti and Duccio), in the mid-1970s Bill Viola travelled to Asia. In 1980, he even met a Zen master in Japan, Daien Tanaka, who became his spiritual master. His work took on a spiritual, meditative, emotional and intimate dimension. He has no hesitation in putting himself on stage and revealing his family.
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Featured photo: © Alessandro Moggi
