Sonata I-IV

Comprising life events and artistic pieces significant to the artist, the rectangular-shaped images convey a striking resemblance to a set of epitaph tablets—not only in appearance but in function—as a chronicle of the tomb owner’s achievements.

Description

From a set of four prints entitled Sonata, these prints juxtapose collaged images from Nam June Paik’s childhood, including photographs, musical compositions, and clips from his video works. In the final row of Sonata I, Paik included an image capturing his sensational performance with cellist and performance artist Charlotte Moorman in 1965. And, in Sonata III, Paik included a few images that echo his memory with his father whom he rebelled against in his youth. As one of the core members of Fluxus (from the Latin word for flowing), an international experimental and interdisciplinary art movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Paik stood out with his electronic works employing television sets and a stream of endless images and videos clips.

A square print depicts four rows of four rounded squares, like black-and-white television screens, some even striated as if from static. Most of the striated screens feature people while the remaining screens feature text, some of it printed, some appearing written in thick, black ink. Other screens feature an illegible maplike drawing, ink like blacked-out text on white, and a swirling doodle.

Sonata I-IV

1996

Nam June Paik, Mark Patsfall Graphics, Galerie Asbæk

(Korean, 1932–2006), (United States, Ohio, Cincinnati, est. 1981), (Denmark, Copenhagan, est. 1975)

Korea

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