Four things to see: Television

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Each week we bring you four of the most interesting objects from the world’s museums, galleries and art institutions, hand-picked to mark significant moments in the calendar.

One hundred years ago this week, John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television at Selfridges in London, unveiling a technology that would transform modern life. The flickering black-and-white images he displayed were a far cry from today’s high-definition screens, but they heralded a new era of mass communication and visual culture.

Artists have long been fascinated by television’s unique properties – its immediacy, its domestic presence, its ability to shape cultural narratives. From Nam June Paik’s pioneering video art to Andy Warhol’s screen prints of television scenes, artists have both embraced and been repelled by the possibilities of the medium. As traditional broadcast television seems to be giving way to streaming services and social media, we look at four works that engage with the complexity of television.

Lucy (1992), Nam June Paik. The Bass Museum of Art, Miami. Photo: © Zaire Aranguren

Lucy (1992), Nam June Paik
The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach

In this large sculptural portrait, Paik transforms television components into a meditation on human evolution. Titled after the nickname given to the skeleton of an early human ancestor, Australopithecus afarensis, that was found in Ethiopia in 1974, the sculpture combines monitors, circuit boards and electronic parts into a cybernetic being. Five integrated screens display anthropological footage, while capacitors and resistors become decorative elements and electrical cords form wild hair, pointing to the ways in which technology has changed humanity. Click here to find out more on Bloomberg Connects.

Television Ensemble (1962), César. Photo: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Service de la documentation photographique du MNAM/Dist. GrandPalaisRmn; © SBJ/Adagp, Paris.

Television Ensemble (1962), César
Centre Pompidou, Paris

César strips away television’s familiar casing to expose its industrial innards, mounting the dismantled set on a pedestal of scrap metal. This Nouveau Réaliste approach transforms the TV from entertainment device to sculptural object, celebrating its mechanical beauty rather than its cultural status. Protected under a Perspex hood, the work presents television as both technological relic and modern artefact. Click here to learn more.

T.V. Still Life from the portfolio 11 Pop Artists, Volume III (1965; published 1966), Tom Wesselmann. © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

T.V. Still Life from the portfolio 11 Pop Artists, Volume III (1965; published 1966), Tom Wesselmann
Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Wesselmann updates the traditional still life for the television age, juxtaposing a TV set with fruit in this bold screenprint. Created in the decade when television had reached 90 per cent of American households, the work uses minimal colours and stark lines to suggest a modern domestic scene, transforming a familiar genre for the electronic era. Click here to find out more.

Full Financial Disclosure (1976) from The TV Commercials (1973–7) by Chris Burden. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. © Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Full Financial Disclosure (1976) from The TV Commercials (1973–7), Chris Burden
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

In this subversive intervention, Burden purchased television advertising slots to broadcast his own artistic statement. Sitting in front of an American flag, he methodically listed his income and expenses for 1976, turning commercial airtime into a meditation on transparency and capitalism. The work aired thirty times on Los Angeles television in 1977. Click here to read more.

‘Four things to see’ is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, a free arts and culture platform that provides access to museums, galleries and cultural spaces around the world on demand. Download the app here or scan the QR code to access hundreds of digital guides, anytime, anywhere.