Having moved to Germany in 1956, Nam June Paik joined a group of artists who vigorously led the Fluxus movement. Hommage à John Cage: Music for Tapes and Piano derives from Paik’s encounter with Cage and the incident’s influence on Paik. The performance is comprised of four movements; while a collage of recorded sounds ranging from classical music to daily noise plays on the tape, Paik plays, destroys, and knocks down a “prepared piano” on stage. The photograph is from a preview performed in 1959 at Paik’s studio in Cologne. From the left is Jean-Pierre Wilhelm holding a cigarette in his mouth, Manfred de la Motte (seen from the back), Nam June Paik, and Hans G. Helms.
