Nam June Paik
Follow This Artist

Born: 1932

Died: 2006

Hometown: Seoul, Korea

Education: University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 1956
History of Music, Munich University, Munich, Germany
Composition, Freiburg Conservatory, Freiburg, Germany, 1958

Nam June Paik Bio

About The Artist

Nam June Paik is best known for his radiant, large-scale television installations. Paik used television as a medium to remix familiar imagery (such as the American flag) in an intoxicating and unexpected manner. An exciting and experimental pioneer of early video art, Paik was also an avant-garde composer, a seminal member of the Fluxus movement, and a sci-fi enthusiast who built his own robot and also created art with satellites.

A visionary who coined the term "electronic superhighway" in 1974, Paik foresaw and contributed to the information age of the twenty-first century. Inspired by the riveting performances of legendary composer John Cage, he was determined to translate electronic music to the visual realm. In the early 1960s, he exhibited the first work of art containing a television set and would continue showing them in conjunction with lasers creating a dramatic interplay of light, imagery, and symbolism.

Nam June Paik Permanent Collections

Select Permanent Collections

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Contemporary Art - North Miami (MOCA), Miami, FL
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA