Editing Nam June Paik

{{Short description|South Korean video artist (1932–2006)}}
{{Eastern name order|Paik Nam June}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = Nam June Paik
| image            = Portrait of Nam June Paik-by Lim Young-kyun-1981.jpg
| caption          = Nam June Paik in [[New York City]] in 1983
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1932|07|20}}
| birth_place      = [[Keijō]], [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea, Empire of Japan]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|2006|1|29|1932|07|20}}
| death_place      = [[Miami]], Florida, United States
| nationality      = South Korean,{{cn|date=January 2025}} American
| field            = {{nowrap|[[Video art]], performance, [[installation art]]}}
| training         = [[University of Tokyo]],<br>{{nowrap|[[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]]}}
| movement         = [[Fluxus]]
| works            = 
| patrons          = 
| awards           = [[File:ROK_Order_of_Cultural_Merit_Geum-gwan_(1st_Class)_ribbon.PNG|border|23px]] [[Order of Cultural Merit (Korea)|Geumgwan Order of Cultural Merit]] (2007)
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Shigeko Kubota]]|1977<!--|January 29, 2006-->}}
| relatives        = [[Jinu]] (grandson)<br/>[[Ken Hakuta|Ken Paik Hakuta]] (nephew)
| signature        = Nam June Paik signature.png
| module           = {{Infobox Korean name
 | hangul  = 백남준
 | hanja   = 白南準
 | rr      = Baek Namjun
 | mr      = Paek Namjun
| child  = yes}}
}}

'''Nam June Paik'''{{family name footnote|[[Baek|Paik]]||lang=Korean}} ({{Korean|hangul=백남준|rr=Baek Namjun}}; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a South Korean artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of [[video art]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort|title=The New Media Reader|publisher=MIT Press|year=2003|page=227|isbn=0-262-23227-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/post/father-of-video-art-nam-june-paik-gets-american-art-museum-exhibit-photos/2012/12/12/c16fa980-448b-11e2-8e70-e1993528222d_blog.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | first=Maura | last=Judkis | title="Father of video art" Nam June Paik gets American Art Museum exhibit (Photos) | date=December 12, 2012 | access-date=September 5, 2017 | archive-date=August 9, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809041026/https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/post/father-of-video-art-nam-june-paik-gets-american-art-museum-exhibit-photos/2012/12/12/c16fa980-448b-11e2-8e70-e1993528222d_blog.html | url-status=live }}</ref> He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" to describe the future of telecommunications.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Danzico|first1=Matt|last2=O'Brien|first2=Jane|title=Visual artist Nam June Paik predicted internet age|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20649028|publisher=[[BBC News online]]|date=December 17, 2012|access-date=December 18, 2012|archive-date=April 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170411045822/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20649028|url-status=live}}</ref>

Born in [[Seoul]] to a wealthy business family, Paik trained as a classical musician, spending time in Japan and West Germany, where he joined the [[Fluxus]] collective and developed a friendship with experimental composer [[John Cage]]. He moved to New York City in 1964 and began working with cellist [[Charlotte Moorman]] to create [[performance art]]. Soon after, he began to incorporate televisions and [[video tape recorder]]s into his work, acquiring growing fame. A stroke in 1996 left him partially paralyzed for the last decade of his life.

==Early life and education==
Paik was born in [[Keijō]] ([[Seoul]]), [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea, Empire of Japan]] in 1932. He was the youngest of three brothers and two sisters. His {{ill|Paik Naksŭng|ko|백낙승 (1886년)|lt=father}}, who in 2002 was revealed to be a [[Korean collaborators with Imperial Japan|Korean who collaborated with the Japanese]] during the latter's occupation of Korea, owned a major textile manufacturing firm. As he was growing up, he was trained as a [[classical pianist]]. By virtue of his affluent background, Paik received an elite education in modern (largely Western) music through his tutors.<ref name="Hanhardt-2012">{{Cite book |last=Hanhardt |first=John G. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/830201733 |title=Nam June Paik : global visionary |date=2012 |others=Ken Hakuta, Smithsonian American Art Museum |isbn=978-1-907804-20-5 |location=Washington, DC |oclc=830201733}}</ref>{{Rp|page=43}}

In 1950, during the [[Korean War]], Paik and his family fled from their home in [[Korea]], first fleeing to [[Hong Kong]], but later moved to [[Japa]]n. Paik graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in aesthetics from the [[University of Tokyo]] in 1956, where he wrote a thesis on the composer [[Arnold Schoenberg]].<ref>[https://www.theartstory.org/artist/paik-nam-june/ The Art Story]</ref>

Paik then moved to [[West Germany]] in 1957 to study music history with composer [[Thrasybulos Georgiades]] at [[Munich University]].<ref name="Hanhardt-2012" />{{Rp|page=19}}<ref name="Nam June Paik">{{cite web|url=http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/422|title=Nam June Paik|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311093600/http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/422|archive-date=March 11, 2014|website=[[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]], New York}}</ref> While studying in Germany, Paik met the composers [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]] and [[John Cage]] and the [[conceptual art]]ists [[Sharon Grace]], [[George Maciunas]], [[Joseph Beuys]], and [[Wolf Vostell]].
[[File:Paik Nam June (cropped).jpg|thumb|Paik Nam June in [[Darmstadt]] in 1959]]

==Career==
In 1961, Paik returned to Tokyo to explore the country's advanced technologies.<ref name="Nam June Paik-2019">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1090281587 |title=Nam June Paik |date=2019 |others=Sook-Kyung Lee, Rudolf Frieling, Tate Modern |isbn=978-1-84976-635-7 |location=London |oclc=1090281587}}</ref>{{Rp|page=14}} While living in Japan between 1962 and 1963, Paik first acquired a [[Portapak|Sony Portapak]], the first commercially available video recorder, perhaps by virtue of his close friendship with [[Nobuyuki Idei]], who was an executive at (and later president of) the [[Sony]] corporation.<ref name="Hanhardt-2012" />{{Rp|pages=19–20}}

From 1962, Paik was a member of the experimental art movement [[Fluxus]].<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Christiane Paul (curator)|Christiane Paul]]|title=Digital Art|publisher=[[Thames & Hudson]]|location=London|pages=14–15}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Petra Stegmann|title=The lunatics are on the loose – EUROPEAN FLUXUS FESTIVALS 1962–1977|publisher=DOWN WITH ART!|location=Potsdam|year=2012|isbn=978-3-9815579-0-9}}.</ref>

In 1964, Paik immigrated to the United States of America and began living in New York City, where he began working with classical cellist [[Charlotte Moorman]], to combine his video, music, and [[Performance art|performance]].<ref name="Hanhardt-2012" />{{Rp|page=20}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.veniceperformanceart.org/index.php?page=327&lang|title=Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420203021/http://www.veniceperformanceart.org/index.php?page=327&lang|archive-date=April 20, 2018|work=Venice International Performance Art Week}}</ref>
From 1979 to 1996 Paik was professor at the [[Kunstakademie Düsseldorf]].{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

After nearly 35 years of being exiled from his motherland of Korea,<ref name="Hanhardt-2012" />{{Rp|page=43}} Paik returned to South Korea on June 22, 1984.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=152}} From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, Paik played an integral role in Korea's art scene. As the curator Lee Sooyon has argued, Paik became more than just an illustrious visitor to Korea, he became the leader who helped open Korea's art scene to the broader international art world.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=154}}

He opened solo exhibitions in Korea and mounted two world-wide broadcast projects for the 1986 Asia Games and the 1988 Olympics, both hosted in [[Seoul]], and organized a number of exhibitions in Korea. Some exhibitions coordinated by Paik introduced John Cage, [[Merce Cunningham]], and Joseph Beuys to Korea's art scene; others brought recent developments in video art and interactivity from Europe and the U.S. to Korea, in ways that bridged similar activities in Korea's art scene.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=154}} Paik was also involved in bringing the 1993 [[Whitney Biennial]] to Seoul, as well as in founding the [[Gwangju Biennale]] and establishing the [[Korean pavilion|Korea Pavilion]] at the [[Venice Biennale]].

Beginning with his artistic career in Germany in the 1960s—and on through his immigration to the U.S., later involvement in South Korea's art scene, and broader participation in international artistic currents—Paik's transnational path informed both his identity and his artistic practice in complex ways.<ref name="Hanhardt-2012" />{{Rp|page=48}} At the outset of his career in Europe, Paik declared, "The [[yellow peril]]! C'est moi," in a 1964 pamphlet, a reference to his Asian identity that, as the curators June Yap and Lee Soo-yon have noted, appropriates a xenophobic phrase coined by Kaiser Wilhelm II as Paik referenced his Asian identity.<ref name="Lee-2021">{{Cite journal |last=Lee |first=Sooyon |date=2021 |title=Paik Nam June Effect |journal=MMCA Studies |publisher=National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea |publication-place=Seoul, South Korea |issue=13 |issn=2093-0712}}</ref>{{Rp|page=158}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yap |first=June |date=August 28, 2022 |title=Nam June Paik in Asia |url=https://explore.namjunepaik.sg/essays-interviews/nam-june-paik-in-asia |access-date=August 28, 2022 |website=Nam June Paik: The Future Is Now |archive-date=August 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828172359/https://explore.namjunepaik.sg/essays-interviews/nam-june-paik-in-asia/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Curator John Hanhardt observed that certain works recall Paik's lived experience of transnational immigration from South Korea to Japan, Germany, and on the U.S.; one example is ''Guadalcanal Requiem'' (1977), which invokes "the history and memories of World War II in the Pacific."<ref name="Hanhardt-2012" />{{Rp|page=43}} Hanhardt has also concluded that—though "no single story" of Nam June Paik can capture the complexity of who he was and the places that shaped him—as Paik grew in public, transcultural, and global recognition, he held onto the significance of his birthplace in Korea.<ref name="Hanhardt-2012" />{{Rp|page=48}} Similarly, the curator Lee Sook-kyung has called identifying what is Korea, Japanese, American, or German about Nam June Paik to be a "futile" effort,<ref name="Nam June Paik-2019" />{{Rp|page=9}} yet she has observed that Paik consistently emphasized his Korean heritage and "Mongolian" lineages.<ref name="Nam June Paik-2019" />{{Rp|page=135}}

==Works==
[[Image:Frankfurt Medien Denkmal.jpg|thumb|''Pre-Bell-Man'', statue in front of the [[Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt]] in Germany]]
Nam June Paik then began participating in the [[Neo-Dada]] art movement, known as [[Fluxus]], which was inspired by the composer [[John Cage]] and his use of everyday sounds and noises in his music. He made his big debut in 1963 at an exhibition known as ''Exposition of Music-Electronic Television''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/exposition-of-music/|title=Media Art Net {{!}} Paik, Nam June: Exposition of Music – Electronic Television|publisher=Media Art Net|date=March 22, 2017|access-date=March 22, 2017|archive-date=April 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170415161903/http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/exposition-of-music/|url-status=live}}</ref> at the Galerie Parnass in [[Wuppertal]] in which he scattered televisions everywhere and used magnets to alter or distort their images. In a 1960 piano performance in [[Cologne]], he played [[Chopin]], threw himself on the piano and rushed into the audience, attacking Cage and pianist David Tudor by cutting their clothes with scissors and dumping shampoo on their heads.<ref>{{cite web|author=Suzanne Muchnic|date=January 31, 2006|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jan-31-me-paik31-story.html|title=Nam June Paik, 74; Free-Spirited Video Artist Broke Radical New Ground|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220050854/http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/31/local/me-paik31|archive-date=December 20, 2014|url-status=live|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=[[Wulf Herzogenrath]]|title=Videokunst der 60er Jahre in Deutschland|publisher=[[Kunsthalle Bremen]]|year=2006}}</ref>

Cage suggested Paik look into Zen Buddhism. Though Paik was already well familiar with Buddhism from his childhood in Korea and Japan, Cage's interest in Zen philosophy compelled Paik to re-examine his own intellectual and cultural foundation.<ref name="Nam June Paik-2019" />{{Rp|page=13}}

During 1963 and 1964 the engineers Hideo Uchida and Shuya Abe showed Paik how to interfere with the flow of electrons in color TV sets, work that led to the Abe-Paik video synthesizer, a key element in his future TV work.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://museumzero.blogspot.com/2013/12/its-all-baseball-nam-june-paik-starts.html|title=It's All Baseball: Nam June Paik Starts Out|access-date=June 28, 2020|archive-date=June 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629222646/https://museumzero.blogspot.com/2013/12/its-all-baseball-nam-june-paik-starts.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|reason=See unreliable sources list on [[WP:KO/RS]]|date=November 2024}}

In 1965, Paik acquired a [[Sony]] TCV-2010, a combination unit that contained the first consumer-market video-tape recorder [[CV-2000]]. Paik used this VTR to record television broadcasts, frequently manipulating the qualities of the broadcast, and the magnetic tape in process. In 1967 Sony introduced the first truly portable VTR, which featured a portable power supply and handheld camera, the Sony [[Portapak]]. With this, Paik could both move and record things, for it was the first portable video and audio recorder.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/the-take/the-year-video-art-was-born|title=The Year Video Art Was Born|date=July 15, 2010|publisher=Guggenheim|access-date=March 22, 2017|archive-date=March 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322204401/https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/the-take/the-year-video-art-was-born|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://museumzero.blogspot.com/2013/12/nam-june-paik-starts-making-video.html|title=Nam June Paik Starts Making Video|access-date=June 28, 2020|archive-date=June 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630194841/https://museumzero.blogspot.com/2013/12/nam-june-paik-starts-making-video.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|reason=See unreliable sources list on [[WP:KO/RS]]|date=November 2024}} From there, Paik became an international celebrity, known for his creative and entertaining works.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Christiane Paul (curator)|Christiane Paul]]|title=Digital Art|publisher=[[Thames & Hudson]]|location=London|page=21}}</ref>

In a notorious 1967 incident, Moorman was arrested for going topless while performing in Paik's ''Opera Sextronique''. Two years later, in 1969, they performed ''TV Bra for Living Sculpture'', in which Moorman wore a bra with small TV screens over her breasts.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Paik|first1=Nam June|last2=Moorman|first2=Charlotte|title=TV-Bra for Living Sculpture (1969)|url=http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/tv-bra/|location=[[Cologne]]|publisher=Media Art Net (medienkunstnetz.de)|year=1970|access-date=October 21, 2006|archive-date=October 12, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012170056/http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/tv-bra/|url-status=live}}</ref> Throughout this period it was Paik's goal to bring music up to speed with art and literature, and make sex an acceptable theme. One of his Fluxus concept works ("Playable Pieces") instructs the performer to "Creep into the Vagina of a living Whale."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cope |first=David |title=New Directions in Music |publisher=Wm. Brown |year=1984 |isbn= |edition=4th |location=Dubuque, Iowa |pages=306 |language=EN}}</ref> Of the "Playable Pieces," the only one actually to have been performed was by Fluxus composer [[Joseph Byrd]] ("Cut your left forearm a distance of ten centimeters.") in 1964 at UCLA's New Music Workshop.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nyman|first=Michael|title=Experimental Music|year=1999|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-65383-1}}</ref>

In 1971, Paik and Moorman made ''TV Cello'', a cello formed out of three television sets stacked up on top of each other and some cello strings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://walkerart.org/magazine/nam-june-paik-golden-age-television|title=Nam June Paik: Television Has Attacked Us for a Lifetime|website=walkerart.org|access-date=June 28, 2020|archive-date=October 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001181548/https://walkerart.org/magazine/nam-june-paik-golden-age-television|url-status=live}}</ref>  During Moorman's performance with the object, she drew her bow across the "cello," as images of her and other cellists playing appeared on the screens. Paik and Moorman created another TV Cello in 1976 as a Kaldor Public Art Project in Sydney, Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/343.2011.a-c/#video|title=TV Cello 1976|website=artgallery.nsw.gov.au|access-date=July 29, 2021}}</ref>

In 1974 Nam June Paik used the term "super highway" in application to telecommunications, which gave rise to the opinion that he may have been the author of the phrase "[[Information Superhighway]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://netart.incubadora.fapesp.br/portal/midias/paik.htm|title=Netart|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090312092802/http://netart.incubadora.fapesp.br/portal/midias/paik.htm|archive-date=March 12, 2009}}</ref> In fact, in his 1974 proposal "Media Planning for the Postindustrial Society – The 21st Century is now only 26 years away" to the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] he used a slightly different phrase, "electronic super highway":<ref>{{citation|last=Paik|first=Nam June|title=Media Planning for the Postindustrial Society – The 21st Century is now only 26 years away|url=http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/source-text/33/|publisher=Media Art Net (medienkunstnetz.de)|year=1974|access-date=December 18, 2012|archive-date=September 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903012019/http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/source-text/33/|url-status=live}}</ref>

<blockquote>
"The building of new electronic super highways will become an even huger enterprise. Assuming we connect New York with Los Angeles by means of an electronic telecommunication network that operates in strong transmission ranges, as well as with continental satellites, wave guides, bundled coaxial cable, and later also via laser beam fiber optics: the expenditure would be about the same as for a [[Moon landing]], except that the benefits in term of by-products would be greater.</blockquote>

Also in the 1970s, Paik imagined a global community of viewers for what he called a Video Common Market which would disseminate videos freely.<ref>{{cite web|author=Laura Cumming|date=December 19, 2010|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/dec/19/nam-june-paik-tate-liverpool-review|title=Nam June Paik – review|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126202759/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/dec/19/nam-june-paik-tate-liverpool-review|archive-date=November 26, 2016|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> In 1978, Paik collaborated with [[Dimitri Devyatkin]] to produce a light hearted comparison of life in two major cities, ''Media Shuttle: New York-Moscow'' on [[WNET]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eai.org/titles/575|title=Electronic Arts Intermix: Media Shuttle: Moscow/New York, Dimitri Devyatkin; Nam June Paik|website=www.eai.org|access-date=June 28, 2020|archive-date=June 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628094906/http://www.eai.org/titles/575|url-status=live}}</ref> The video is held in museum collections around the world.

Possibly Paik's most famous work, ''[[TV Buddha]]'' is a video installation depicting a Buddha statue viewing its own live image on a closed circuit TV. Paik created numerous versions of this work using different statues, the first version is from 1974.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://stedelijkmuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/exchanges/past-presentations/71867 |title=TV-Buddha (1974) – Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam |access-date=October 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010155544/http://stedelijkmuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/exchanges/past-presentations/71867 |archive-date=October 10, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vmfa.museum/mlit/looking-buddha-watching-tv/|title=Looking at Buddha Watching TV – Art + Science|date=June 2, 2015|access-date=June 28, 2020|archive-date=June 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629103103/https://www.vmfa.museum/mlit/looking-buddha-watching-tv/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/map_mohaiemen_arupbaruastress_563|title=Arup Barua, Stress, 2012|date=April 22, 2013|website=Guggenheim|access-date=June 28, 2020|archive-date=June 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630031737/https://www.guggenheim.org/map_mohaiemen_arupbaruastress_563|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Nixon, 1965-2002, Nam June Paik at NGA.jpg|thumb|right|''Nixon'' (1965–2002) at the [[National Gallery of Art]] in 2022]]

Another piece, ''Positive Egg'', displays a white egg on a black background. In a series of video monitors, increasing in size, the image on the screen becomes larger and larger, until the egg itself becomes an abstract, unrecognizable shape.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.today.com/popculture/video-innovator-nam-june-paik-dies-74-wbna11098552|title=Video innovator Nam June Paik dies at 74|website=TODAY.com|date=January 30, 2006 |access-date=June 28, 2020|archive-date=July 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701085119/https://www.today.com/popculture/video-innovator-nam-june-paik-dies-74-wbna11098552|url-status=live}}</ref> In ''Video Fish'',<ref>{{citation|last=Paik|first=Nam June|title=Video-fish|url=http://www.worldvisitguide.com/contact/A009212.html|publisher=World Visit Guide (insecula)|year=1974|access-date=December 18, 2012|archive-date=October 24, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024111404/http://www.worldvisitguide.com/contact/A009212.html|url-status=live}}</ref> from 1975, a series of aquariums arranged in a horizontal line contain live fish swimming in front of an equal number of monitors which show video images of other fish.
Paik completed an installation in 1993 in the NJN Building in Trenton, NJ. This work was commissioned under the public building arts inclusion act of 1978. The installation's media is neon lights incorporated around video screens. This particular piece is currently non-operational, though there are plans to make necessary upgrades/repairs to restore it to working order.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

During the New Year's Day celebration on January 1, 1984, he aired ''[[Good Morning, Mr. Orwell]],'' a live link between [[WNET]] New York, [[Centre Pompidou]] Paris, and South Korea. With the participation of [[John Cage]], [[Salvador Dalí]], [[Laurie Anderson]], [[Joseph Beuys]], [[Merce Cunningham]], [[Allen Ginsberg]] and [[Peter Orlovsky]], [[George Plimpton]], and other artists, Paik showed that [[George Orwell]]'s [[Big Brother (1984)|Big Brother]] had not arrived.

As the curator Suh Jinsuk has observed, after returning to Korea in 1984, Nam June Paik increasingly explored symbols of global exchange with Asia, such as the Silk Road and Eurasia.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Do |first1=Hyung-Teh |title=Nam June Paik: When he was in Seoul |last2=Suh |first2=Jin-suk |last3=Lee |first3=Yongwoo |last4=Fargier |first4=Jean-Paul |publisher=Gallery Hyundai |year=2016 |location=Seoul, South Korea}}</ref>{{Rp|page=22}} Moreover, as Paik became involved in Korea's art scene, he spearheaded projects that drew upon his connections with business and government circles in South Korea.<ref name="Lee-2021" /> ''Bye Bye Kipling'', a tape that mixed live events from Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and New York, USA, demonstrates this new phase in Paik's practice. Broadcast on the occasion of the Asia Games in Seoul, ''Bye Bye Kipling''<nowiki/>'s title referenced a poem by Rudyard Kipling, "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet," as it fostered collaborations such as between the American artist [[Keith Haring]] and the Japan-based fashion designer [[Issey Miyake]].<ref name="Nam June Paik-2019" />{{Rp|page=145}} As curator Lee Sooyon has argued, ''Bye Bye Kipling'' also contributed to the Korea government's agendas of "the advancement and internationalization of culture" by bringing together video sketches of shaman rituals and Korean drum dancers with Seoul's "economic miracle" and the bustling business of [[Namdaemun Market]].<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=162}}

In 1988, Paik installed ''[[The More, The Better]]'' in the atrium of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon. A giant tower, the work is made of 1003 monitors—a number that references October 3 as the day of Korea was founded by [[Dangun]], according to legend. ''[[The More, The Better]]'' appears prominently in Paik's 1988 satellite broadcast ''Wrap Around the World,'' which was made for the [[1988 Summer Olympics|Seoul Olympics]].<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=152}}<ref name="Kac">{{cite web |last1=Kac |first1=Eduardo |title=Wrap Around the World |url=https://www.ekac.org/wraparoundtheworld.html |website=KAC |access-date=17 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250329143800/https://www.ekac.org/wraparoundtheworld.html |archive-date=29 March 2025 |date=10 September 1988 |url-status=live}}</ref> The same year, he unveiled ''[[Metrobot]]'', his largest statue and his first outdoor installation, at the [[Contemporary Arts Center]] in [[Cincinnati]].<ref>{{cite news|title=He's big, clunky and fun: City muses over Metrobot|first=Dave|last=Wells|work=[[The Cincinnati Enquirer]]|date=October 28, 1988|pages=D{{hyphen}}1–[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer/151696450/ D{{hyphen}}2]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer/151695544/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

For the German pavilion at the 1993 Venice Biennale, Paik created an array of robot sculptures of historic figures, such as [[Catherine the Great]] and the legendary founder of Korea, [[Dangun]], so as to emphasize the connections between Europe and Asia.<ref name="Nam June Paik-2019" />{{Rp|page=135}}

Paik's 1995 piece ''[[Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii]]'', is on permanent display at the Lincoln Gallery of the [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii &#124; Smithsonian American Art Museum|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/electronic-superhighway-continental-us-alaska-hawaii-71478|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010155231/https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/electronic-superhighway-continental-us-alaska-hawaii-71478|archive-date=October 10, 2017|access-date=October 10, 2017|website=americanart.si.edu}}</ref>
Paik was known for making robots out of television sets. These were constructed using pieces of wire and metal, but later Paik used parts from radio and television sets.

Despite his stroke, in 2000, he created a millennium satellite broadcast entitled ''Tiger is Alive'' and in 2004 designed the installation of monitors and video projections Global Groove 2004<ref>A video from this installation can be found in the [[Experimental Television Center]] and {{citation|url=http://hdl.handle.net/1813.001/8946249|title=its Repository|hdl=1813.001/8946249 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200517094322/http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu/etc/|archive-date=May 17, 2020}} in the [[Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art]], [[Cornell University Library]]</ref> for the [[Deutsche Guggenheim]] in Berlin.<ref name="Nam June Paik" /> Global Groove was turned into an [[Non-fungible token|NFT]]-based artwork and put up online at [[Christie's]], the global art auction house<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yuna |first=Park |date=2021-05-28 |title=Paik Nam-june's first NFT-based artwork offered by Christie's |url=https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210528000751 |access-date=2024-09-14 |website=[[The Korea Herald]] |language=en}}</ref> It sold for $56,250.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yuna |first=Park |date=2021-06-09 |title=[Feature] NFT art shakes up Korean art market |url=https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210609000829#:~:text=Video%20art%20pioneer%20Paik%20Nam,a%20Christie's%20auction%20last%20week. |access-date=2024-09-14 |website=[[The Korea Herald]] |language=en}}</ref>

==Exhibitions==
[[File:Nam June Paik - SF MOMA - 2021-09-17 - Sarah Stierch.jpg|thumb|Entrance to the Nam June Paik retrospective at the [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]] in 2021]]
Paik's first exhibition, entitled "Exposition of Music – Electronic Television", was held in 1963 at Galerie Parnass in [[Wuppertal]], Germany. A retrospective of Paik's work was held at the [[Whitney Museum]] in [[New York City]] in the spring of 1982. Major retrospectives of Paik's work have been organized by [[Kölnischer Kunstverein]] (1976), [[Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris]] (1978), [[Whitney Museum of American Art]] in New York City (1982), [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]] (1989), and the [[Kunsthalle Basel]] (1991).

Nam June Paik's first major retrospective in Korea, ''Video Time – Video Space'', opened at the Gwacheon location of the [[National Museum of Contemporary Art (South Korea)|National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea]] on July 30, 1992.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=154}} Although the exhibition lasted merely 34 days, it saw 117,961 paid visitors; the unofficial visitor count reached nearly 200,000.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=154}} The exhibition involved the participation of major entities of media and business—including the Korea Broadcasting Corporation and Samsung Electronics.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=154}}  The exhibition presented approximately 150 artworks, beginning with ''[[The More, The Better]]'' as the exhibition's starting point.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=156}} According to Lee Sooyon, Paik carefully tailored the exhibition's works to his audiences. Knowing that Korea's audience was not familiar with international art world conversations of video art, Fluxus, and performance art, Paik selected artworks that appealed to popular subjects of Korean culture and history.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=156}}  The exhibition also featured works from Paik's ''TV Buddha'' and ''My Faust'' series.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=156}}

A final retrospective of his work was held in 2000 at the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum|Guggenheim Museum]] in New York City, with the commissioned site-specific installation ''Modulation in Sync'' (2000)<ref>{{cite web|author=Mark Stevens|date=February 21, 2000|url=http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/art/reviews/2075/|title=Surfing the Guggenheim|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203081323/http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/art/reviews/2075/|archive-date=February 3, 2014|work=[[New York Magazine]]}}</ref> integrating the unique space of the museum into the exhibition itself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/paik/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214035440/http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/paik/index.html|url-status=dead|title=The Worlds of Nam June Paik|archive-date=February 14, 2015|website=pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org}}</ref> This coincided with a downtown gallery showing of video artworks by his wife [[Shigeko Kubota]], mainly dealing with his recovery from a stroke he had in 1996.

In 2011, an exhibition centered on Paik's video sculpture ''One Candle, Candle Projection'' (1988–2000) opened at the [[National Gallery of Art]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nga.gov/press/exh/3376/index.shtm|title=Press Release: First Nam June Paik Exhibition at National Gallery of Art, Washington, Includes Most Ambitious Installation to Date of "One Candle, Candle Projection"|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102012157/http://www.nga.gov/press/exh/3376/index.shtm|archive-date=January 2, 2013|work=[[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C.}}</ref> Another retrospective was mounted at the [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]] in Washington, D.C., in 2012–2013.<ref name="Karen Rosenberg-2013">{{cite web|author=Karen Rosenberg|date=January 11, 2013|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/arts/design/nam-june-paik-at-smithsonian-american-art-museum.html|title=He Tickled His Funny Bone, and Ours|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331034945/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/arts/design/nam-june-paik-at-smithsonian-american-art-museum.html|archive-date=March 31, 2017|work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/paik/|title=Nam June Paik: Global Visionary|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130106221102/http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/paik/|archive-date=January 6, 2013|publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum, December 13, 2012 – August 11, 2013}}</ref> As a leading expert in Paik's work, art historian John G. Hanhardt was the curator for three landmark exhibitions devoted to the artist, the ones at the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite web|author=Carol Vogel|date=April 30, 2009|title=Nam June Paik Archive Goes to the Smithsonian|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/arts/design/01voge.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127073119/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/arts/design/01voge.html|archive-date=January 27, 2018|work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref>
 
Paik's work also appeared in important group exhibitions such as [[São Paulo Biennale]] (1975), [[Whitney Biennial]] (1977, 1981, 1983, 1987, and 1989), [[Documenta]] 6 and 8 (1977 and 1987), and [[Venice Biennale]] (1984 and 1993).<ref name="Nam June Paik"/>

From April 24, 2015, to September 7, 2015, Paik's works ''T.V. Clock'', ''9/23/69: Experiment with David Atwood,'' and ''ETUDE1'' were displayed at "Watch This! Revelations in Media Art" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Online Gallery – Watch This! Revelations in Media Art |publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum |url = http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/watch_this/ |access-date = July 25, 2015|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150703074009/http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/watch_this/|archive-date = July 3, 2015}}</ref>

Although Paik's pioneering experimentalism and foresight of the important role media would continue to play in society has been examined across many exhibitions, for a 2019 exhibition, the [[Tate Modern]] turned its focus upon Paik as a collaborator.<ref name="Nam June Paik-2019" />{{Rp|page=6}}<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=152}} This exhibition later travelled to the [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]], where it was presented at the first West-coast retrospective of Paik's work from May 8, 2021, through October 3, 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Dan Gentile|date=June 3, 2021|title=This is the buzziest museum exhibit in SF|url=https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/sf-moma-nam-june-paik-san-francisco-museum-exhibit-16220185.php|access-date=August 2, 2021|website=SFGATE|language=en-US}}</ref> It was later presented at the [[National Gallery Singapore]] from 10 December 2021 to 27 March 2022, a first time that such an expansive and ambitious presentation of Paik's oeuvre was presented in Southeast Asia <ref>{{Cite web|title = EXHIBITION REVIEW: "NAM JUNE PAIK: THE FUTURE IS NOW"|date=December 14, 2021 |publisher=ARTSG |url = https://artsg.com/news/exhibition-review-nam-june-paik-the-future-is-now/ |access-date = April 24, 2024}}</ref>

In late 2022, the [[National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art|National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea]], will present an exhibition that focuses on Paik as cultural organizer who made an immense impact upon South Korea's art scene; it aims to bring into greater focus Paik's relationship with national identity.<ref name="Lee-2021" />{{Rp|page=152}}{{Update inline|date=July 2023}}

==Collections==
Public collections that hold or have exhibited work by Nam June Paik include:[[File:Ommah by Nam June Paik.JPG|thumb|''Ommah'' (2005) in the collection of the [[National Gallery of Art]]|251x251px]]

* The [[Detroit Institute of Arts]] (Detroit, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Video Portrait {{!}} Detroit Institute of Arts Museum |url=https://dia.org/collection/video-portrait-56328 |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=dia.org |language=en}}</ref>
* [[National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art|The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]] (Seoul, South Korea),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mmca.go.kr/|title=National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea|first=National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art|last=Korea|website=www.mmca.go.kr|access-date=September 4, 2016|archive-date=October 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004202659/http://www.mmca.go.kr/|url-status=live}}</ref> 
* [[Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art]] (Seoul, South Korea),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.leeum.org/html_eng/collection/modern.asp|title=Modern and Contemporary Art &#124; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art|website=Modern and Contemporary Art &#124; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art|access-date=January 19, 2019|archive-date=January 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119121442/http://www.leeum.org/html_eng/collection/modern.asp|url-status=live}}</ref> 
* The [[Nam June Paik Art Center]] (Yongin, South Korea),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://njpac-en.ggcf.kr/|title=NJP ARTCENTER|access-date=March 22, 2017|archive-date=March 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322205044/https://njpac-en.ggcf.kr/|url-status=live}}</ref> 
* The [[Ackland Art Museum]] (University of North Carolina, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eagle Eye |url=https://ackland.emuseum.com/objects/4630/eagle-eye |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=ackland.emuseum.com |language=en}}</ref> 
* The [[Albright-Knox Art Gallery]] (Buffalo, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Piano Piece {{!}} Buffalo AKG Art Museum |url=https://buffaloakg.org/artworks/19939a-ii-piano-piece |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=buffaloakg.org}}</ref> 
* Mercedes-Benz Art Collection (Berlin, Germany),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mercedes-Benz Art Collection |url=https://www.mercedes-benz.art/artist/nam-june-paik/ |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=Mercedes-Benz Art Collection |language=de-DE}}</ref> 
* [[Fukuoka Art Museum]] (Fukuoka, Japan),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fukuoka Art Museum |url=https://www.fukuoka-art-museum.jp/en/archives/modern_arts/6197?title=&name=Nam+June+Paik&year=&genre=&collection= |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=www.fukuoka-art-museum.jp}}</ref> 
* The [[Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden]] (Washington D.C., USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Record Video Flag {{!}} Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution |url=https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:hmsg_96.4?q=%22Hirshhorn+Museum+and+Sculpture+Garden%22+paik&gfq=CSILP_1&fq=data_source:%22Hirshhorn+Museum+and+Sculpture+Garden%22&record=1&hlterm=&quot;Hirshhorn+Museum+and+Sculpture+Garden&quot;+paik |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=collections.si.edu}}</ref> 
* The [[Honolulu Museum of Art]] (Honolulu, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Warez Academy |url=https://honolulu.emuseum.com/objects/26866/warez-academy |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=honolulu.emuseum.com |language=en}}</ref> 
* [[Kunsthalle Kiel|Kunsthalle zu Kiel]] (University of Kiel, Germany),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sculptures - Kunsthalle zu Kiel |url=https://www.kunsthalle-kiel.de/en/sculptures |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=www.kunsthalle-kiel.de |language=en}}</ref> 
* [[Kunstmuseum St. Gallen]] (St. Gallen, Switzerland),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Contemporary positions – Kunstmuseum St.Gallen |url=https://kunstmuseumsg.ch/en/kunstmuseum/collection/contemporary-positions |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=kunstmuseumsg.ch}}</ref> 
* [[Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen]] (Düsseldorf, Germany),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nordrhein-Westfalen |first=Kunstsammlung |title=Kunstsammlung NRW: Startseite |url=https://www.kunstsammlung.de/de/collection/artists/nam-june-paik |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen |language=de}}</ref> 
* [[Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst]] (Aachen, Germany),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sammlung – Ludwig Forum |url=https://ludwigforum.de/museum/sammlung/ |access-date=June 16, 2023 |language=de-DE}}</ref> 
* [[Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris|Musée d'Art Moderne]] (Paris, France), 
* [[Museum Wiesbaden]] (Wiesbaden, Germany), 
* The [[National Gallery of Australia]] (Canberra, Australia),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nam June Paik - Search the Collection, National Gallery of Australia |url=https://searchthecollection.nga.gov.au/artist/21172/nam-june-paik |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=National Gallery of Australia |language=en}}</ref>  
* [[National Gallery of Victoria]] (Melbourne, Australia),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Works {{!}} NGV {{!}} View Work |url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/148540/ |access-date=October 31, 2023 |website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au |language=en-AU}}</ref>  
* The [[Berardo Collection Museum]] (Lisbon, Portugal),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Museu Coleção Berardo - Modern and Contemporary Art Museum in Lisbon |url=https://en.museuberardo.pt/collection/artists/420 |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=en.museuberardo.pt}}</ref> 
* [[National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens|National Museum of Contemporary Art]] (Athens, Greece),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Global Groove |url=http://collection.emst.gr/projects/Παγκόσμιο-κανάλι/ |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=Εθνικό Μουσείο Σύγχρονης Τέχνης |language=en-US}}</ref> 
* Palazzo Cavour (Turin, Italy),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nam June Paik in Turin |url=https://www.domusweb.it/en/art/2002/10/02/nam-june-paik-in-turin.html |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=www.domusweb.it |language=en-gb}}</ref> 
* The [[Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium]] (Brussels, Belgium), 
* The [[Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam|Stedelijk Museum]] (Amsterdam, The Netherlands),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Grrr.nl |date=August 30, 2020 |title=Nam June Paik |url=https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/exhibitions/nam-june-paik |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=www.stedelijk.nl |language=en}}</ref> 
* Schleswig-Holstein Museum (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), 
* The [[Smart Museum of Art]] (University of Chicago, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=A New Design for TV Chair |url=https://smartcollection.uchicago.edu/objects/3208/a-new-design-for-tv-chair |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=smartcollection.uchicago.edu |language=en}}</ref> 
* [[Smith College Museum of Art]] (Northhampton, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collections Database |url=https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1998.18 |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=museums.fivecolleges.edu}}</ref>  
* [[Hessel Museum of Art]] at [[Bard College]], (Annandale-on-Hudson, USA)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Untitled (Scarf) |url=https://bard.emuseum.com/objects/2034/untitled-scarf |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=bard.emuseum.com |language=en}}</ref> 
* The [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]] (Washington D.C., USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Paik, Nam June (RELATED, Archive) {{!}} Smithsonian American Art Museum |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/paik-nam-june-related-archive-30002 |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=americanart.si.edu |language=en-US}}</ref> 
* The [[Stuart Collection]] (University of California, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nam June Paik - Something Pacific |url=https://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/artist/paik.html |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=stuartcollection.ucsd.edu}}</ref> 
* The  [[Dayton Art Institute]] (Dayton, USA)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nam June Paik - FOUR DECADES |url=https://www.daytonartinstitute.org/exhibits/nam-june-paik-four-decades/ |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=Dayton Art Institute |language=en-US}}</ref> 
* The [[Walker Art Center]] (Minneapolis, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nam June Paik |url=https://walkerart.org/collections/artists/http:://walkerart.org/collections/artists/nam-june-paik |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=walkerart.org |language=en-US}}</ref> 
* The [[Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art]] at [[Cornell University Library]], (Ithaca, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Artists {{!}} ETC / Experimental Television Center {{!}} Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art |url=https://goldsen.library.cornell.edu/etc/artists.php |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=goldsen.library.cornell.edu}}</ref> 
* The [[Worcester Art Museum]] (Worcester, USA),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Works – Nam June Paik – Creators – Worcester Art Museum |url=https://worcester.emuseum.com/people/8292/nam-june-paik/objects |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=worcester.emuseum.com}}</ref>  
* [[Reynolda House Museum of American Art]] (Winston-Salem, USA).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leonardo da Vinci |url=https://reynoldahouse.emuseum.com/objects/227/leonardo-da-vinci |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=reynoldahouse.emuseum.com |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Colección SOLO]] (Madrid, Spain)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nam June Paik |url=https://coleccionsolo.com/artists/nam-june-paik/ |access-date=August 30, 2023 |website=Colección Solo |language=en-US}}</ref>
* [[Whitney Museum|Whitney Museum of American Art]] (New York, USA)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nam June Paik |url=https://whitney.org/artists/986 |access-date=December 15, 2023 |website=whitney.org |language=en}}</ref>
* The [[Bass Museum|Bass Museum of Art]] (Miami, USA)<ref>{{Cite web |title=» THE MIAMI YEARS |url=https://thebass.org/art/the-miami-years/ |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=thebass.org}}</ref>

==Honours and awards==
* 1991: [[Goslarer Kaiserring]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Liste der Kaiserringträger {{!}} Mönchehaus Museum Goslar |url=https://www.moenchehaus.de/kaiserring/kaiserringtraeger/liste-der-kaiserringtraeger/ |access-date=June 16, 2023 |language=de-DE}}</ref>
* 1993: Golden Lion, [[Venice Biennale]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 1993 at La Biennale di Venezia Venice - Artmap.com |url=https://artmap.com/labiennaledivenezia/exhibition/la-biennale-di-venezia-1993-1993 |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=artmap.com}}</ref> (With Hans Haacke)
* 1995: [[Ho-Am Prize in the Arts]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Previous Laureates - HOAM |url=http://www.hoamfoundation.org/eng/award/part.asp |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=www.hoamfoundation.org}}</ref>
* 1998: [[Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arts {{!}} Kyoto Prize |url=https://www.kyotoprize.org/en/laureates/nalini_malani/ |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=京都賞 |language=en-US}}</ref>
* 2000: [[Order of Cultural Merit (Korea)]]<ref>{{cite news|author=[[JoongAng Ilbo]]|date=October 17, 2000|url=https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/3982789|script-title=ko:비디오 아티스트 백남준씨 금관문화훈장 받아|trans-title=Video artist Nam June Paik to receive the Geumgwan Order of Cultural Merit|language=ko|work=[[JoongAng Ilbo]]|publisher=JoongAng Holdings Ltd.|location=South Korea|access-date=December 26, 2022}}</ref>
* 2001: Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize, awarded by the [[Duisburg|City of Duisburg]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Prize – lehmbruckmuseum |url=https://lehmbruckmuseum.de/museum-english/history/wilhelm-lehmbruck-prize/ |access-date=June 16, 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref>
* 2001: Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, International Sculpture Center.<ref>{{cite web|author=International Sculpture Center|url=http://www.sculpture.org/documents/awards/life.shtml|title=Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427055252/http://www.sculpture.org/documents/awards/life.shtml|archive-date=April 27, 2016|access-date=February 13, 2010}}</ref>
* 2004: Edward MacDowell Medal in the Arts<ref>{{Cite web |title=Medal Day History |url=https://www.macdowell.org/medal-day-history |access-date=June 16, 2023 |website=MacDowell |language=en}}</ref>

==Archive==
Given its largely antiquated technology, Paik's oeuvre poses a unique conservation challenge.<ref name="Technological Masterpieces">{{cite web|author=Rachel Wolff|date=December 14, 2012|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324481204578175263823931892#|title=Technological Masterpieces|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622220349/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324481204578175263823931892|archive-date=June 22, 2018|work=[[Wall Street Journal]]}}</ref> In 2006, Nam June Paik's estate asked a group of museums for proposals on how each would use the archive. Out of a group that included the [[Museum of Modern Art]], the [[J. Paul Getty Museum]], the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]] and the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]], it chose the [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]]. The archive includes Paik's early writings on art history, history and technology; correspondence with other artists and collaborators like Charlotte Moorman, John Cage, [[George Maciunas]] and [[Wolf Vostell]]; and a complete collection of videotapes used in his work, as well as production notes, television work, sketches, notebooks, models and plans for videos. It also covers early-model televisions and video projectors, radios, record players, cameras and musical instruments, toys, games, folk sculptures and the desk where he painted in his SoHo studio.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>

Curator [[John Hanhardt]], an old friend of Paik, said of the archive: "It came in great disorder, which made it all the more complicated.  It is not like his space was perfectly organized.  I think the archive is like a huge memory machine.  A wunderkammer, a wonder cabinet of his life."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://americanart.si.edu/education/rs/artwork/curator.cfm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606220824/http://americanart.si.edu/education/rs/artwork/curator.cfm|url-status=dead|title=Americanart.si.edu|archive-date=June 6, 2013}}</ref> Hanhardt describes the archives in the catalog for the 2012 Smithsonian show in the book ''Nam June Paik: Global Visionary''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/work/best_book/21996766-nam-june-paik-global-visionary|title=Nam June Paik|website=www.goodreads.com|access-date=June 28, 2020|archive-date=April 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423080750/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16156955-nam-june-paik|url-status=live}}</ref>

Michael Mansfield, associate curator of film and media arts at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, supervised the complex installation of several hundred CRT TV sets, the wiring to connect them all, and the software and servers to drive them. He developed an app on his phone to operate every electronic artwork on display.<ref name="Anderson">{{cite news | url=http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/nam-june-paik-smithsonian/ | work=Art in America | first=John | last=Anderson | title=Nam June Paik: Preserving the Human Televisions | date=February 6, 2013 | access-date=May 16, 2017 | archive-date=May 20, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520232842/http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/nam-june-paik-smithsonian/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

Many of Paik's early works and writings are collected in a volume edited by [[Judson Rosebush]] titled ''Nam June Paik: Videa 'n' Videology 1959–1973,'' published by the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, in 1974.

==Influence==
As a pioneer of [[video art]] his influence was from a student he met at [[CalArts]] named [[Sharon Grace]] he described her as "pure genius" from the moment they met.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}  The two met while she was filming fellow students at random with her Sony Portapak as an artistic [[sociological]] practice akin to the artist in the studio. This led to ''[[TV Buddha]]'' and people's model of the internet as we know it today with such art pieces as "Send / Receive". The artwork and ideas of Nam June Paik were a major influence on late 20th-century art and continue to inspire a new generation of artists. [[Contemporary artists]] considered to be influenced by Paik include [[Christian Marclay]], [[Jon Kessler]], [[Cory Arcangel]], [[Ryan Trecartin]] and [[Haroon Mirza]].<ref name="Karen Rosenberg-2013"/>

Nam June Paik's work was first screened in South Korea on March 20, 1974, at the United States Information Center in Seoul.<ref name="Gungnip Hyeondae Misulgwan-2019">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1236776786 |title=Hanguk bidio ateu 7090. |date=2019 |publisher=Gungnip Hyeondae Misulgwan |others=Isik Myeong, Hwasu Mun, 명이식, 문화수, Gungnip Hyeondae Misulgwan, Seoul Kolleksyeon |isbn=978-89-6303-227-6 |location=Gwacheon |oclc=1236776786}}</ref>{{Rp|page=196}} The artist [[Park Hyun-ki|Park Hyunki]] was among the audience (which featured Paik's Global Groove); the screening notably inspired Park Hyunki to first experiment with video.<ref name="Gungnip Hyeondae Misulgwan-2019" />{{Rp|page=196}}

==Art market==
[[Christie's]] holds the auction record for Paik's work since it achieved $646,896 in Hong Kong in 2007 for his ''Wright Brothers'', a 1995 propeller-plane-like tableau comprising 14 TV monitors.<ref name="Technological Masterpieces"/>

In 2015, [[Gagosian Gallery]] acquired the right to represent Paik's artistic estate.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Burns|first1=Charlotte|title=Gagosian nets estate of Nam June Paik, grandfather of video art|url=http://theartnewspaper.com/market/art-market-news/158162/|newspaper=The Art Newspaper|access-date=August 30, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905133359/http://www.theartnewspaper.com/market/art-market-news/158162/|archive-date=September 5, 2015}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Paik moved to New York City in 1964.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Palmer|first1=Lauren|title=6 Fascinating Facts About Nam June Paik on His Birthday|date=July 20, 2015 |url=https://news.artnet.com/people/nam-june-paik-on-his-birthday-316607|publisher=Art News|access-date=August 30, 2015|archive-date=September 12, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912021345/https://news.artnet.com/people/nam-june-paik-on-his-birthday-316607|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1977, he married the video artist [[Shigeko Kubota]].<ref name="Smith">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/arts/design/31paik.html?_r=0 | work=The New York Times | first=Roberta | last=Smith | title=Nam June Paik, 73, Dies; Pioneer of Video Art Whose Work Broke Cultural Barriers | date=January 31, 2006 | access-date=February 22, 2017 | archive-date=April 23, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423080749/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/arts/design/nam-june-paik-73-dies-pioneer-of-video-art-whose-work-broke.html | url-status=live }}</ref> After marrying Kubota and living in the United States for several decades, Paik became a [[Naturalization|naturalized]] American citizen.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Howell |first1=John |title=ART : This Guy Does Wonders With TVs : Nam June Paik is a cultural terrorist, a high-tech guru and a funny guy to boot. He also happens to be the godfather of video art |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-09-ca-32987-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=December 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213154825/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-09-ca-32987-story.html |archive-date=December 13, 2023 |date=May 9, 1993 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Paik was a lifelong [[Buddhist]] who never smoked nor drank alcoholic beverages, and never drove a car.<ref name="Smith"/>

==Health deterioration and death==
In 1996, Paik had a stroke, which paralyzed his left side. He used a wheelchair the last decade of his life, though he was able to walk with assistance.

He died on January 29, 2006, in [[Miami]], Florida, due to complications from a [[stroke]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Leader of Avant-Garde Electronic Art Movement Dies at 75 |date=February 1, 2006 |publisher=Voice of America |url=http://voanews.com/english/archive/2006-02/2006-02-01-voa91.cfm |access-date=December 25, 2008}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref name="imdb bio">{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656760/bio|title=Biography for Nam June Paik|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421044206/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656760/bio|archive-date=April 21, 2017|work=Internet Movie Database|access-date=January 24, 2011}}</ref>

==Legacy==
Paik was survived by his wife, his brother, Ken Paik, and a nephew, [[Ken Hakuta|Ken Paik Hakuta]], an inventor and television personality best known for creating the [[Wacky WallWalker]] toy, and who managed Paik's studios in New York City.<ref name="Smith"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Abrams |first1=Amah-Rose |title=Nam June Paik's Nephew Gift to Harvard Museums |publisher=Artnet News |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nam-june-paiks-nephew-donation-harvard-museums-769844 |date=December 2, 2016 |access-date=September 4, 2017 |archive-date=September 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905002819/https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nam-june-paiks-nephew-donation-harvard-museums-769844 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In one of his last interviews, Paik voiced his belief that to be buried in a cemetery would be futile, and expressed a desire for his ashes to be scattered around the world, and for some of his ashes to be buried in Korea.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/nam-june-paik-moon-is-the-oldest-tv-c7qezh/|title=American Masters &#124; Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV &#124; Season 37 &#124; PBS|via=www.pbs.org}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
* {{cite book|author=Holly Rogers|title=Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art-Music|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2013}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote-inline}}
{{Commons category-inline}}
*[https://www.archivioconz.com/collection/artists/nam-june-paik/ Archivio Conz]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041015061902/http://www.paikstudios.com/ Official Website of Nam June Paik]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120908032241/http://americanart.si.edu/collections/mediaarts/paik/ Nam June Paik Archive at the Smithsonian American Art Museum]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20161107094350/https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/partner/nam-june-paik-art-center Nam June Paik Art Center at Google Cultural Institute]
*[http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/9328.HTML 9/23 Paik-Abe videosynthesizer performance] from WGBH New Television Workshop archives, features short clip
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060509091832/http://www.eai.org/eai/artist.jsp?artistID=481 Electronic Arts Intermix] includes a biography and description of major works
*[http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/artist/paik/biography/ Nam June Paik biography @ MedienKunstNetz]
*[http://www.museovostell.org/coleccion2.htm Nam June Paik at the Museo Vostell Malpartida]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120425193123/http://www.fluxus-plus.de/id-50-jahre-fluxus.html Nam June Paik at the museum FLUXUS+]
*[http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2006/01/30/2006013061012.html "Father of Video Art Paik Nam-june Dies"], The Chosun Ilbo, January 30, 2006.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080405062244/http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi%24artistdetail?PAIKN Nam June Paik] in the [http://www.vdb.org/ Video Data Bank]
*[http://www.ubu.com/film/paik.html Nam June Paik on Ubu Film]
*{{IMDb name|0656760}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110705082259/http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/821234899001 Tate: TateShots: Nam June Paik. 2011.]
*[http://www.ubu.com/sound/paik.html Nam June Paik] in [[UbuWeb]] Sound

;Listening
*[http://www.ubu.com/sound/paik.html UbuWeb: Nam June Paik] featuring ''Abschiedssymphonie'' and ''In Memoriam George Maciunas'' MP3s offline
*''TV Cello'', Nam June Paik & Charlotte Moorman performance (MP3: [https://web.archive.org/web/20070704002831/http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/moorman_charlotte/Moorman-Charlotte_11_TV_Cello_Pt-1.mp3 part 1], [https://web.archive.org/web/20070704002959/http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/moorman_charlotte/Moorman-Charlotte_12_TV_Cello_Pt-2.mp3 part 2])
*''Concert for TV Cello and Videotapes'', Nam June Paik with Charlotte Moorman and [[Paul Garrin]], Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1982 (MP3: [https://web.archive.org/web/20060212230533/http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/moorman_charlotte/Moorman-Charlotte_13_Tv-Cello-And-Videotapes_Pt-1.mp3 part 1])
*MP3 [https://web.archive.org/web/20060212223559/http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/moorman_charlotte/Moorman-Charlotte_19_Saint-Saens.mp3 Variations on a Theme by Saint-Saens] Charlotte Moorman live at Mills College August 3, 1974

{{Nam June Paik|state=expanded}}
{{Fluxus}}
{{Performance art}}
{{Video art}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paik, Nam June}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2006 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Seoul]]
[[Category:South Korean video artists]]
[[Category:South Korean contemporary artists]]
[[Category:Fluxus]]
[[Category:Kyoto laureates in Arts and Philosophy]]
[[Category:Kyunggi High School alumni]]
[[Category:Korean emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Mass media theorists]]
[[Category:University of Tokyo alumni]]
[[Category:South Korean performance artists]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Cultural Merit (South Korea)]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium]]
[[Category:Suwon Baek clan]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts]]