Nam June Paik: In Character

Exhibition Website

Jun 3 2017 - Jan 1 2018

This exhibition explores the pioneering career of Nam June Paik (1932–2006) through the prism of his close friendships with artists, including Joseph Beuys, John Cage, and Charlotte Moorman. Negotiating his identity between East and West, Paik developed an exuberant artistic language, incorporating Asian characters and symbols of his own devising that recur throughout his multi-faceted creations. Nam June Paik: In Character showcases the late artist’s video sculptures, altered televisions, and an array of drawings and ephemera that have rarely or never been exhibited. Together, this selection spans Paik’s early Fluxus activity and performances to his final autobiographical works, tracing his playful vocabulary across geographic boundaries and artistic media.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.         

Whether or not you go, the Guggenheim Museum Publication that accompanied the first American retrospective of the Korean-born multi-media artist's work since 1982, The Worlds of Nam June Paik brings together the major artworks that define Nam June Paik's singular achievement. Through his sculptures, installations, videotapes, and projects for television, Paik has recognized and realized the potential of video to become an artistic medium.

Through its 300 illustrations, and an essay by Guggenheim curator John G. Hanhardt-supplemented by a selection of Paik's own writings-this volume allows art lovers to experience the numerous ways in which Paik has treated the electronic moving image and expanded the definition of sculpture and installation art over the past four decades.

The Worlds of Nam June Paik

  • Various Media
  • Asian
  • 20th Century
  • Nam Jun Paik

Exhibition Venues & Dates