The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 17, 2025

Print with four rows of four rounded squares, like black-and-white television screens, some even striated as if staticky. 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 map-like drawing, ink like blacked-out text on white, and a swirling doodle.

Sonata I-IV

1996

Nam June Paik

(Korean, 1932–2006)
printer

Mark Patsfall Graphics

(United States, Ohio, Cincinnati, est. 1981)
publisher

Galerie Asbæk

(Denmark, Copenhagan, est. 1975)
Korea
portfolio of 4 prints, each: lithograph, screenprint, and etching
Sheet: 53.3 x 66 cm (21 x 26 in.); Image: 51.8 x 64.8 cm (20 3/8 x 25 1/2 in.)
The A. W. Ellenberger, Sr., Endowment Fund 2015.144
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

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.
  • ?–2015
    (Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2015–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Juxtaposition and Juncture in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 21, 2025-May 3, 2026).
    Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 29-July 16, 2018).
  • {{cite web|title=Sonata I-IV|url=false|author=Nam June Paik, Mark Patsfall Graphics, Galerie Asbæk|year=1996|access-date=17 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.144