Smithsonian celebrates achievements of ‘Global Visionary’

The art and ideas of the world-renowned Korean-born practitioner Nam June Paik, have been a significant influence on late 20th century art. He continues to motivate a new generation of artists. A new show celebrating the oeuvre of this ‘Global Visionary’ courtesy the Smithsonian American Art Museum offers a view into his creative method by showcasing works, which convey his extraordinary accomplishments. Here’s a quick look at highlights of this major showcase: 

• The exhibition includes 67 works and more than 140 items from the Archive. Several rare artworks borrowed from private and public collections in the United States and abroad, including TV Garden (1974/2000) from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Buddha Complex (1982) from the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, and Paik’s rarely seen installation Moon Projection with E Moon and Birds (1996).
  
• ‘Nam June Paik: Global Visionary’ gives an insight into the complexity of his ideas. It features his personal history through thematic groupings that draw on the resources of the Nam June Paik Archive. Paik’s writings and the materials he collected reveal the influences of Asian and Western philosophy, as well as developments in technology and science. The museum is using these materials to show the development of his innovative and radical conceptualization of the future roles of communication technologies in the expanding global media culture.
  
• Three exceptional artworks from the museum’s collection are also included: Zen for TV (1963/1976), Megatron/Matrix (1995), and Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii (1995). In addition to objects from the archive, a number of artworks are on public display for the first time including; ‘Electronic Schematic Drawing for Paik-Abe Video Synthesizer’ (1969), ‘Number 5’ (1975), ‘Cage TV Sketch’ (about 1970), Untitled (Purple and Yellow Face) (about 1970), Untitled (Television and Moon) (1978), and ‘Chinese Memory’ (2005).
  
• One of the robots created by Paik has ‘come to life’ on Twitter under the handle @PaikBot. Visitors can follow PaikBot for behind-the-scenes information, interesting facts about Paik, and ask questions about the exhibition. Also, people can help PaikBot travel the world with a ‘Flat PaikBot’ project on Pinterest.