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Korea Herald
3 days ago
- General
- Korea Herald
Exhibition focuses on early Joseon art
First 200 years of Joseon shaped Korean identity, National Museum of Korea says For the next three months, an exhibition at the National Museum of Korea will look at how the first 200 years of Joseon (1392-1910) formed what is quintessentially Korean identity today through exceptional artworks. The exhibition 'Art of Early Joseon: Masterpieces from the 15th and 16th Century' illustrates the initiative and vibrancy the Joseon people projected as they fostered what would become Korea, according to Kim Jae-hong, the NMK director general, during a preview tour Monday. 'Joseon's early years were pivotal to Korean history because the social fabric as well as physical borders of Korea were established by then,' Kim added, saying artworks on display would help people recognize the continuity of society over centuries. A total of 691 ceramics, calligraphy and Buddhist paintings are on view, 40 of which are on loan from 24 institutions in the US, UK, Germany, France and Japan. Of the 40 items, 23 are being shown in Korea for the first time, an NMK official said, adding that 79 items on display are state-designated National Treasures and Treasures. Some 300 ceramics, which account for almost half of the entire objects featured, testify to Korea's shifting focus on white porcelain from the celadon of the preceding Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392). Buncheong, a type of stoneware that bridged the transition in the 15th century, uses a greater range of decorative techniques than Goryeo celadon, and is more colorful than white porcelain, the museum said. White porcelain replaced buncheong in the following centuries. Calligraphy and paintings by Joseon officials, who doubled as scholars promoting Confucian values and teachings, shed light on Joseon aesthetics, chiefly expressed in ink wash paintings that stress various tonal effects employing just black ink and water. 'Through ink-wash landscape paintings rendered in deep tones of black ink with masterful shading, the scholar officials of Joseon depicted the ideal world envisioned by the newly established Confucian ideology,' the museum said. Buddhist objects, from paintings to statues, add context to the exhibition dedicated to the deeply Confucian state. The Wooden Seated Buddha at Jogyesa, the main temple of Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, shows the influence Buddhism still held over the people even after the state adopted Confucianism as its ruling ideology, a museum official said. Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon, a book annotating Hangeul, the Korean writing system created by King Sejong the Great in 1443, which will be on display until July 7. The exhibition comes 20 years after the museum's reopening in Seoul's Yongsan-gu. It runs through August, and admission fees are waived from Tuesday to Sunday.
Korea Herald
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
In first, Korean museum looks at Oceanian cultures
Exhibit offers inspiration to help combat climate change, the National Museum of Korea says The National Museum of Korea has opened an exhibition on Oceanian cultures, the first attempt by a Korean institution to focus on regions in the South Pacific spanning the East and Western hemispheres. 'Mana Moana: Arts of the Great Ocean, Oceania' looks through some 180 items from the 18th century like canoes, the high-priority survival object essential to the Maori people, New Zealand's Indigenous population. Gloves adorned with shark teeth, hooks in the shape of human faces and headgear made of spines from porcupine fish shed light on everyday life back then. Pearl shells and necklaces made of hairs or jade — the symbol of honor and authority — show how Oceanians viewed beauty and attached deeper meaning to it. The exhibition, which opened Wednesday, is thematically arranged in three sections: seas, islands and lands. 'The arrangement reflects the way of life Oceanians must have embraced. Each space is unique. So are artifacts associated with it,' the museum said. The exhibit further aims to rethink what it means to 'connect and coexist' with the future, said Kim Jae-hong, the NMK director general. 'The way the islands groups within the vast expanse of the South Pacific Ocean remain connected and how they prepare to ride out future challenges facing them are the conversation we want to put out,' Kim said, citing finding inspiration for answers to climate change as doable via the presentation. 'Pacific island nations offer inspiration to some of the crises landlocked countries grapple with,' Kim added. Kim, who took over the current role in July last year, has since doubled down on ramping up the museum's global outreach. The latest exhibition, jointly organized with the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, is an effort to that end, according to Kim. 'Showcasing each people's original culture and everything in coexistence with it is what we want to express at this exhibition,' said Emmanuel Kasarherou, president of the the Quai Branly Museum, who is of Melanesian descent. After closing on Sept. 14, the exhibition will travel to the Jeonnam Museum of Art in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, from Sept. 30 to Dec. 28.
