By Josephine Reed
:: Nam June Paik transformed video into an artist’s medium with his media-based art that challenged and changed our understanding of visual culture. As Paik wrote in 1969, he wanted “to shape the TV screen canvas as precisely as Leonardo, as freely as Picasso, as colorfully as Renoir, as profoundly as Mondrian, as violently as Pollock and as lyrically as Jasper Johns.” The trajectory of his artistic practice is the subject of a current exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum which is aptly namedNam June Paik: Global Visionary. It was organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s senior curator for media arts and the leading expert on Nam June Paik, John Hanhardt.
All the art work shown was created by Nam June Paik. All images are courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.