Untitled 1975

Nam June Paik made this drawing on graph paper using what looks like a ballpoint pen. There is something really appealing about these kinds of notes or sketches that artists make; it gives a sense of the thinking behind the grand gestures of the final work. The graph paper gives a beautiful structure that Paik plays against with the freehand shapes, like little screens or boxes. Each contains a different doodle: a cross with little flags, some dots, a kind of antenna. The drawing has a lightness of touch that feels provisional, like he’s thinking aloud, working out some ideas on paper, and like Cy Twombly, Paik uses line in a very sculptural way. You can really imagine him playing with the possibilities of what a screen could be, not just as a surface for display, but as a space for experimentation. In this sense, the drawing becomes a playground for his imagination. It’s like he’s saying, ‘what if art could be more like this?’