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   Semen Fridliand, Die kaüfliche Presse (The Venal Press ) 1929 halftone reproduction,  6 1/4 x 8 1/4 in. (16 x 21 cm)   National Gallery of Art Library, David K.E. Bruce Fund   At least four exhibitions on the Mall, at the National Gallery of Art and Hirshhorn Museum, take a look at printed word in painting and other art forms of the past century.  Chronologically, these exhibits begin with the avant-garde artists of circa 1910 at the National Gallery of Art's "Shock of the News" exhibition.  They end with today's leading provocateur-artist, Ai Weiwei of China, at the Smithsonian's contemporary art museum, the Hirshhorn.   So we search for the meaning of the word in art.    Jean-Léon Gérôme, O Pti Cien, 1902, is an academic style In 1902, Jean-Léon Gérôme, a leading academic artist of the day, painted O PTI CIEN, a puppy wearing a monacle. The letters suggest a reading of "au petit chien" ("at the little dog"), which would...

Electronic Superhighway, 1995,a gift from the artist to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington. This 49-channel installation is neon, steel and other electrical parts. In the Tower: Nam June Paik is at the National Gallery of Art until October 2nd. This Korean-American artist introduced the realm of tv/video art with sculptures made of televisions in 1966. The exhibit encompasses themes and ideas important to art of the last 50 years. His last video sculpture made in 2005, Ommah (mother in Korean) uses a 100-year-old boy's robe, hanging like a cross, with a projection of Korean-American girls at play, linking past and present . It is in the National Gallery's permanent collection To fully appreciate his work one must see the exhibition in the museum's East Wing. His art is about tv/video, a relatively new medium in visual art. A room of Paik's drawings accompany the exhibition and help the viewer understand his thought process. One of the most interesting ...