Object Details
- Artist
- Nam June Paik, born Seoul, Korea 1932-died Miami Beach, FL 2006
- Gallery Label
- In a 1963 exhibition in Germany, Paik displayed a room full of electronically altered and arranged televisions, making him one of the first artists to use actual TVs and broadcast content to make art. One set arrived broken, compressing all received signals into a thin line of light. Paik embraced its broken state and titled it Zen for TV, playfully and profoundly linking its accidental minimalism to the meditative focus of Zen Buddhism, a religious reference he often used to signify an Asian perspective in Euro-American contexts. Zen for TV became one of Paik’s signature works, and over the years he created select versions like this one.
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Byungseol and Dolores An
- Copyright
- © Nam June Paik Estate
- 1963, 1976 version
- Object number
- 2006.20
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Sculpture
- Medium
- manipulated television set; black and white, silent
- Dimensions
- 19 x 22 1/2 x 18 in. (48.3 x 57.2 x 45.7 cm)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- On View
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, 3rd Floor, East Wing
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Topic
- Religion\Buddhism
- Object\furniture\television
- Record ID
- saam_2006.20
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk73a4b9b10-980f-4355-b7b7-fa6afcbe54f9
