The Consultant: Paik’s Papers, 1968–1979

Abstract

Nam June Paik (1932–2006) was in many ways a pioneer and prophet of the technological age, hailed as the “godfather of video art.” The Nam June Paik Art Center of the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation in Yongin-si, South Korea, is an institution that continues to shed new light on the artist’s legacy (figs. 1–2). It held a special exhibition on the ninetieth anniversary of Paik’s birth titled The Consultant: Paik’s Papers, 1968–1979. The show focused on Paik’s time in New York, when he worked as an official and unofficial consultant for the Rockefeller Foundation, rationalizing the support and development of video art over a period of about twenty years, starting in 1967.