Nam June Paik, Untitled, 1980, ink on paper, sheet: 21.59 x 27.94 cm, Nam June Paik Estate, © Nam June Paik Studios, Inc. 2010.

Nam June Paik, Flux 20, 1982, ink on advertisement, sheet: 27.62 x 20.64 cm, Nam June Paik Estate, © Nam June Paik Studios, Inc. 2010.

Nam June Paik, Untitled, 1973, color photo-screenprint, 30.5 x 22.9 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Robert Rauschenberg.

Nam June Paik, Untitled (Red Hand), 1967, 19th century paper scroll by Komatsu Akira, red ink, light bulb, and wood frame, overall: 168.91 x 74.93 x 14.61 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Hakuta Family.

National Gallery
4th and Constitution Avenue NW
202-737-4215
Washington
Tower Gallery
In the Tower: Nam June Paik
March 13-October 2, 2011

In the Tower: Nam June Paik is the third in a series of shows installed in the Tower Gallery that centers on developments in art since midcentury. The exhibition features 20 works by groundbreaking contemporary artist Nam June Paik (1923-2006) in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. The Paik exhibition is presented in two galleries and includes closed-circuit video works, a variety of previously unseen works on paper, and a short film about the artist. The centerpiece of the show, One Candle, Candle Projection (1988/2000), receives its most ambitious installation ever, taking full advantage of the vaulting, self-contained space of the I.M. Pei-designed tower.

"Drawn from Paik's estate as well as on an important recent addition to the Gallery's own collection, this focus exhibition explores some of Paik's most dynamic yet meditative work. We are thrilled to be able to present our first exhibition on the artist and grateful to his estate for its generous loans," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art and made possible by The Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art.

Nam June Paik Paik is a towering figure in contemporary art. Born in Korea, trained in Japan and Germany in aesthetics and music, Paik settled in New York in 1964 and quickly became a pioneer in the integration of art with technology and performance. He was the first artist to show abstract forms on a television, using a magnet to distort the image (in 1963), and among the first to use a portable video unit (in 1965). With these early works, Paik attacked the passivity that he felt television imposed on viewers. Through endless play with the medium, which Paik disassembled and recomposed (even making a literal "boob tube" for classical cellist Charlotte Moorman with TV Bra for Living Sculpture, 1969), he reclaimed the televised image as an expressive, democratic tool.

Best known for his video sculptures, installations, and broadcasts, the prolific Paik also created paintings and works on paper, musical and other performances, laser projections, functioning robots, and numerous publications over the course of five decades.

The exhibition is centered around Paik's video sculpture One Candle, Candle Projection (1988/2000). Each morning a candle is lit and a video camera follows its progress, casting its flickering, magnified, processed image onto the walls in myriad projections. It is a central work in Paik's oeuvre for its simultaneous embrace of media overload and Zen simplicity, participation and contemplation. By turns steady as a rock and flickering in the air currents stirred by visitors, the flame is stillness in motion, a paradox magnified by its reproduction on the walls.

Two other "closed-circuit" works share the same dramatically darkened main gallery: Standing Buddha with Outstretched Hand (2005), and Three Eggs (1975-1982). In the former, a bronze Buddha "watches" its own image. In the latter, a video camera fixed on an egg sends the image to a portable TV while an identical TV (minus its picture tube) presents an identical but real egg: the result is both a Platonic reflection on levels of reality and a closed-circuit image of time passing, or standing still.

The second gallery features works on paper by Paik that explore TV as image, object, and medium. The selection includes works borrowed from the estate as well as gifts to the Gallery from Robert Rauschenberg and Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. A short film about Paik narrated by video scholar John Hanhardt offers an overview of the artist's career, while a brochure by Harry Cooper, curator of the exhibition, analyzes the works on display.

The exhibition also presents a new acquisition, Untitled (Red Hand) (1967), a gift of the Hakuta family (following the Gallery's recent purchase of Paik's last work, Ommah (2005), which is on view in the Concourse galleries). This important early work includes a light bulb that flashes through an antique Japanese scroll painting to illuminate a handprint made by the artist on the glass of the frame. It is a humorous meditation on authorship, scavenger hunting, technology, and tradition.

Nam June Paik, Untitled, 1978, pencil on paper, sheet: 20.96 x 29.53 cm, Nam June Paik Estate, © Nam June Paik Studios, Inc. 2010.

Nam June Paik, Untitled, 1975, pencil on paper, sheet: 17.78 x 23.18 cm (7 x 9 1/8 in.), Nam June Paik Estate, © Nam June Paik Studios, Inc. 2010.

Nam June Paik, Good Morning Mr Orwell, 1984, © Estate of Nam June Paik, Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) New York.

Nam June Paik, Global Groove 1973, © Estate of Nam June Paik, Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) New York.

Nam June Paik, Egg Grows, No. 4, 1984, © Estate of Nam June Paik, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Photo: Helge Mundt.

Nam June Paik, One Candle 1979-1992, © Estate of Nam June Paik, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Axel Schneider, Frankfurt am Main.

Nam June Paik in collaboration with Norman Ballard, Laser Cone, 2001/2010, © Estate of Nam June Paik and Norman Ballard, Photographed by Stefan Arendt, LVR / Medienzentrum Düsseldorf.

Nam June Paik in collaboration with Norman Ballard, Laser Cone, 2001/2010, © Estate of Nam June Paik and Norman Ballard, Photographed by Stefan Arendt, LVR / Medienzentrum Düsseldorf.

Nam June Paik, Aunt 1986, © Nam June Paik Estate, Leiser Collection.

Tate Liverpool
Albert Dock
+44-151-702-7400
Liverpool
Nam June Paik
December 17, 2010-March 13, 2011

Nam June Paik's work developed from music via Fluxus actions and performance to media works, with manipulated television images providing the foundation for his video art. This inventive use of technology became Paik's signature style, and the exhibition showcases a number of his iconic works including seven TV Buddhas, four robot sculptures and two TV cellos.  His early manipulated television works Zen for TV, 1963 (1982) and Magnet TV 1965, feature, as does the mesmerising projection One Candle, 1989 and his Video Synthesizer 1969 (1992).

Video artist, performance artist, composer and visionary:  Paik (1932-2006) was one of the most innovative artists of the 20th century.  Tate Liverpool, in collaboration with FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) presents the first major retrospective since the artist's death, and the first exhibition of Paik's work in the UK since 1988.

The exhibition celebrates Paik as the inventor of media art, presenting his artistic path and highlighting his diverse talents "experimental, musical, philosophical, spiritual, political and technological." The exhibition showcases around 90 works from all phases of his career, many shown in the UK for the first time, alongside a rich selection of documentary materials from Paik's performances and early exhibitions.

Born in South Korea, Paik began his career as a composer in Japan and Germany.  Influenced by and working alongside artists such as John Cage, Joseph Beuys and Karlheinz Stockhausen, he developed a great interest in provocative action and electronic music.  A substantial part of the exhibition is devoted to the photographs, scores and concepts from this period of his work in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as two of his famous Prepared Pianos from 1962-3.

Paikâ€'s influential collaborations are brought alive through documents, photographs and rare performance footage.  His friendship with artist Joseph Beuys and his collaboration with cellist Charlotte Moorman, which was particularly significant in the context of the New York avant-garde, are explored in depth. Other collaborators and colleagues including Shuya Abe, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Mary Bauermeister, Alison Knowles, Merce Cunningham and David Bowie feature in documentary material and video works presented at Tate Liverpool and FACT.

Focusing on Paik's creative experiments with emerging technology, FACT will present the UK premiere of major installation Laser Cone, 1998, alongside a series of single-screen and video documents including Global Groove, 1973, and groundbreaking satellite video Bye Bye Kipling, 1986.

Nam June Paik is initiated and developed by Tate Liverpool and museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf, curated by Sook-Kyung Lee and Susanne Rennert. The exhibition in Liverpool is presented by Tate Liverpool in creative collaboration with FACT.

Nam June Paik, Zen for TV,  1963-1975, © Estate of Nam June Paik . Photo: Photo © MUMOK Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien.

Nam June Paik, Uncle, 1986, © Estate of Nam June Paik, Photo Cal Kowal.

Nam June Paik, TV Cello, 2003, © Nam June Paik Estate.

Nam June Paik, TV Chair, 1968, © Nam June Paik Estate.

Nam June Paik demonstrates Zen for Walking 1961, © Manfred Montwé. Photo: Photo by Manfred Montwé.

Nam June Paik, Untitled (Prepared Scroll), 1969/74, Japanese scroll with photograph of Charlotte Moorman wearing 'TV Bra for Living Sculpture' and handwritten notes, 830 x 370 mm, on paper, unique, © Estate of Nam June Paik, Collection Peter Wenzel.

Nam June Paik, Exposition of music – electronic television, 1963, Foto auf Barytpapier, Vintageabzug, Foto: Manfred Montwé, © Manfred Montwé.

Nam June Paik, Zen for TV, 1963.

Nam June Paik, Klavier Integral, 1958-63 (Detail), Klavier präpariert mit verschiedenen Gegenständen, 36 x 140 x 65 cm, Foto: MUMOK, Lisa Rastl, © Estate of Nam June Paik.

MUMOK
Museum
Moderner Kunst
Stiftung Ludwig Vienna
MuseumsQuartier
Museumsplatz 1
+43-1-525 00
Vienna
Nam June Paik
Music for all Senses
February 13-May 17, 2009

Nam June Paik has already entered history as a pioneer of video and media art and as a member of the Fluxus movement. In 1963, he had his first important show Exposition of Music – Electronic Television where he made a bridge between music and the electronically generated image. Using different media and materials, including the legendary Klavier Integral and the first modified television work Zen for TV — both of which are in the possession of the MUMOK — the young artist and music theorist displayed a broad understanding of music that appealed to all senses, placing a special emphasis on speculation and improvisation.

The MUMOK exhibition Music for all Senses presents the museum’s extraordinary collection of Nam June Paik’s early works. The show has been envisioned following the spatial and participatory conception that Paik developed for his first exhibition in 1963. The avant-garde gallerist Rolf Jährling had offered him an exhibition covering 3 floors at the prestigious Galerie Parnaß enabling Paik to stage a spectacular show from the basement to the surrounding living space: record players and sound installations, a room with prepared pianos, Dadaist objects such as a Dada puppet in the bath tub, a room with mirrored glass or Zen objects in the basement caused as much of a stir as the head of a freshly slaughtered steer that greeted the visitors at the entrance. The main attraction, however, was a room with 12 manipulated television sets that could be operated by members of the audience. He modified the televisions in such a way that the running television program itself was distorted. The opening hours of the ten-day-long exhibition were set up to correspond to the television schedule, being open from 7:30 until 9:30 p.m.. Paik was trying to find new ways to think about and make music, inspired in part by the work of the American composer John Cage whom he had met a few years before. It was intended that the audience would perceive the exhibition as a complete experience, where performance, music and the televised image were fused together as one. During Exposition of Music, the already very well-known Joseph Beuys had the honor of destroying one of the pianos.

With the suggested simulation of space, the large-format documentary photographs of the original exhibition and the interactive installation, Music for all Senses should evoke the original feeling of Exposition of Music and allow Paik’s works to come to life. Separate works such as the audio tape Random Excess and Schallplatten Schaschlik highlight the interactive aspects of the exhibition.

Nam June Paik
1932 born in Seoul Korea; 1950 emigration to Japan; 1953-56 studies music, art history and philosophy at the university of Tokyo; 1956-57 studies art and music history at the university of Munich; 1957-58 studies composition at the Musikhochschule Freiburg; 1958 first contact with John Cage; 1958-63 works at the studio for electronic music at the WDR in Cologne; during the 1960s work with Fluxus artists; 1963 Exposition of Music-Electronic Television; 1964 moves to New York; Becomes one of the pioneers of video art, working on tapes, installations, sculptures and television events; 1978 professor at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf; lived and worked in New York and Florida; 2006 Nam June Paik died at the age of 73 in Miami.

Nam June Paik, Exposition of music – electronic television, Kuba TV, 1963, Foto auf Barytpapier, Vintageabzug FOTO: Manfred Leve, © Manfred Leve.

Nam June Paik, TV Fish, 2004, 2 aquariums, two 19" Samsung TVs model CT-5071 XVC, fish rocks, one channel original Paik video on DVD, 1 DVD player, Dimensions variable.

Nam June Paik, Living Egg Grows, 1994, 2 small TVs, 2 medium TVs, 3 large TVs, 1 small egg, 1 medium egg, 1 large egg, Approximate overall dimensions: 36 X 108 X 216".

Nam June Paik, Enlightenment Compressed, 1994, 5" color LCD TV, video camera, wood TV cabinet, plastic TV case, bronze Buddha, aquarium stones, and paint, 13 X 19 X 17-1/2".

Nam June Paik, Watchdog II, 1997, Aluminum framework, circuit boards, intercom horns, audio speakers, Panasonic camcorder, desk lamp, three 13" Samsung TVs model TXD 1372, one 9" KEC TV model 9BND, nine 5" Magnavox TVs model, 62 X 67 X 19".

Nam June Paik, Music Box Based on Piano Piece Composed in Tokyo in 1954, 1994, Vintage TV cabinet, Panasonic 10" TV model 1050R, Panasonic mini video camera, incandescent light bulb, Reuge 144 note music box mechanism, 19-1/2 X 19 X 18-3/4".

Nam June Paik, Beuys Voice, 1990, Two channel color video on laser discs, antique television cabinets, felt, mixed media sculpture, 104-3/8 X 74 X 37-3/8".

James Cohan Gallery
533 West 26th Street
212-714-9500
New York
Nam June Paik
Live Feed: 1972-1994
April 14-May 30, 2009

Live Feed: 1972-1994 consists of a number of works dating from 1972 to 1994, among them are Paik's robot sculptures, live feed installations and other video sculptures.

Commonly hailed as the father of video art, Nam June Paik asserted in 1965 that the television cathode-ray tube would someday replace the canvas. Known as one of the major proponents of the Fluxus movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Paik worked closely with artists John Cage, Joseph Beuys and Charlotte Moorman among others. He balanced a Utopian philosophy with a technical pragmatism and was known for creating works that drew on chance encounters between ideas, the object and the public. Paik's interest in the phenomenon of electronic communication led him to make predictions about how the technological changes were going to affect our daily lives. Forty years removed, we now understand the prescience of Paik's concepts of the "global village" and the "electronic super highway" were, which foreshadowed how technology would come to connect diverse cultures at high speeds in the pre-Internet age. The Korean-born artist died at age 73 in January 2006.

Installed in the main gallery space is TV Bed (1972-91) a sculpture that was created for Paik's frequent collaborator and muse Charlotte Moorman. Paik's sense of humor is evident in the selection of a bed as a tribute to a woman he deeply admired.

Paik began constructing robots in 1964, which developed out of his fascination with remote-control toys. He built robot sculptures to honor his heroes. In this exhibition, the gallery is excited to have several important robot sculptures including Gertrude Stein (1990) depicted with her Victrola-horn arms and video womb, and Beuys Voice (1990), a loving portrayal of one of Paik's major influences, Joseph Beuys, identified by his signature gray felt hat. On a more subversive and comic note, Paik created Watchdog II (1997) a large dog robot named as such for the surveillance camera at the end of its tail and his loud speaker ears.

Included in the exhibition are Paik's "live feed" works in which the closed circuit image displayed on the TV monitor is real-time video captured on camera. For Paik the use of live feed video was his exploration of the increasing blurred line between the real and the represented in the electronic age. In his signature installation Enlightenment Compressed (1994), a bronze statue of Buddha sits to reflect upon his image on a television monitor. The Buddha meditating upon himself points to the self-reflexivity of the experience of the television viewer — a wry comment that equates the TV viewing experience to the practice of Zen meditation as means to achieve a higher level of consciousness.

Over the past 50 years Nam June Paik has exhibited in many major museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York (Projects: Nam June Paik, 1977), Whitney Museum of American Art (Nam June Paik, 1982), Centre Georges Pompidou (Nam June Paik, 1982), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Nam June Paik, 1989), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (Nam June Paik Retrospective: Videotime, 1992), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (The Worlds of Nam June Paik, 2000). He represented Germany at Venice Biennale in 1993. Paik has received numerous grants and awards from, among many others, the Guggenheim Museum, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Film Institute; Will Grohmann Award, Goslar Emperor's Ring and UNESCO's Picasso Medal.

Paik's works are in the collection of a number of institutions, such as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C.), Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), amongst others.

Nam June Paik, TV Bed, 1972/91, Three channel color video, eighteen TVs, antique metal bed frame, wood, puppets, 90-1/2 X 78-3/4 X 59".

Nam June Paik, Gertrude Stein, 1990, antique television monitors, mixed media with two channels of video, 98 X 77-1/8 X 37".

Nam June Paik, Attila the Hun, 1993, Mixed media, 96-1/2 X 39-3/4 X 80-3/4".

Nam June Paik, Reclining Buddha, 1994, 2 color televisions, 2 Pioneer laser disk players, 2 original Paik laser disks, found object Buddha, 20 X 24 X 14".