Acquisition
1992
Nam June Paik
American, born Korea 1932-2006
Family of Robot: Baby, 1986
Television monitors, videodisc player, videodisc, and metal
37 7/8 x 52 1/2 x 8 in. (96 x 113.4 x 20.3 cm)
The Artist
currently on display at the
Art Institute of Chicago
- Adolph Gottlieb
- Doug Aitken
- Josef Albers
- Alexander Calder
- Ghada Amer
- Carl Andre
- Richard Artschwager
- Bill Viola
- Lee Bontecou
- Paul Caponigro
- Paul Chan
- Francis Chapin
- Charles Sheeler
- Christo
- Larry Clark
- Dan Flavin
- Dan Graham
- David Aronson
- Jimmie Durham
- Edwin Dickinson
- Nicole Eisenman
- Ellsworth Kelly
- General Idea
- George Mueller
- Ger van Elk
- Leon Albert Golub
- Gregorio Prestopino
- Philip Guston
- Hans Hofmann
- Gary Hume
- Irene Rice Pereira
- James Lechay
- Jim Dine
- Jasper Johns
- Joseph Raffael
- Donald Judd
- Jules Olitski
- Julian E. Levi
- June Leaf
- Alex Katz
- Guillermo Kuitca
- Kurt Seligmann
- Lorna Simpson
- Roberto Matta
- Joan Mitchell
- Matthew Monahan
- Robert Morris
- Osvaldo Louis Guglielmi
- Nam June Paik
- Ed Paschke
- Jackson Pollock
- Raoul Hague
- Reinhard Mucha
- Bridget Riley
- Doris Salcedo
- Julian Schnabel
- Sean Sean Scully
- Ben Shahn
- Paul Sharits
- Siah Armajani
- David Smith
- Bob Snyder
- Yutaka Sone
- Nancy Spero
- Hedda Sterne
- Rudolph Stingel
- Jessica Stockholder
- Tacita Dean
- Wolfgang Tillmans
- Rosemarie Trockel
- James Turrell
- Danh Vo
- Wayne Thiebaud
- Martin Wong
- Christopher Wool
A Pioneering figure in electronic art, Nam June Paik was among the first to use television as an art form. Originally a composer of experimental and electronic music, he created performance work within the context of the Fluxus movement in the 1950's. The artist viewed his musical instruments as "objects with visual qualitites," which allowed him to move fluidly from using sound to incorporating images into his creations. Having begun exhibiting works with televisions in 1963, Paik was one of the earliest to use a Sony Portapak (the first portable video recording device) after it became available in 1965, producing his initial multimonitor video sculptures the following year.
The Acquisition
This "baby" comes from a large family of robots Paik created between 1985 and 1986. In Paik's family, the grandparents are made up of vintage or antique radios, and the youngest generation is made up of newer technology.