Date: Fri 06-Nov-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

Korea

Full Text:

Arts Of Korea

w/cuts

NEW YORK CITY -- The inaugural exhibition in the new permanent Arts of Korea

Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, features the finest examples of art

in all major media, including 22 national treasures, many of which have never

before been displayed in the West.

Drawn from the collection of the National Museum of Korea in Seoul as well as

from important private collections in Korea, Japan, and the United States, and

including works from the Metropolitan's collection, it is the first

comprehensive display of Korean masterpieces to be seen in the United States

in nearly 20 years.

Bringing together 100 works dating from the Neolithic period through the

Nineteenth Century, this exhibition examines four major areas of traditional

Korean art -- ceramics, metalwork and decorative arts, Buddhist sculpture, and

painting.

Together with the catalogue and educational programs, the exhibition

highlights the distinguished cultural and artistic legacy of Korea and the

historical context in which the objects were created. The 512-page catalogue

-- which introduces significant developments in the history of Korean art and

presents important new findings in Korean art studies to the public and to

scholars -- is one of the few volumes on Korean art to be published in the

English language.

Two earlier exhibitions surveying the history of Korean art and drawing upon

public and private collections in Korea were presented in 1957 and 1979-81 in

a number of venues in the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum.

Since that time, significant advances in art-historical scholarship in Korea

and new archaeological findings throughout the peninsula have led to a more

thorough and critical assessment of Korean art as a distinctive tradition,

particularly in its relationship to the art and culture of China and Japan.

The present exhibition incorporates recent scholarship in the analysis of

stylistic and technical developments in the various media and the examination

of the social and cultural context in which the works of art were produced.

Ceramics

The Korean ceramic tradition has long been admired in China and Japan, and

more recently recognized in the West. Forty ceramics on view -- ranging from

the earthenware of the Neolithic period to the celebrated celadons of the

Koryo dynasty (918-1392) and the white porcelains and punch'ong

("powder-green") ware of the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) demonstrate the skill

and ingenuity of the Korean pottery.

Among these objects are an imposing bird-shaped vessel of the late Second to

Third Century, which represents one of the earliest known Korean ceramic

sculptural forms; a mid-Twelfth Century celadon bottle (kundika) with an

incised and carved design of waterbirds and willows; a Twelfth Century celadon

maebyong (prunus vase), embellished with an underglaze iron-brown and inlaid

design of ginseng leaves; a Fifteenth Century punch'ong bottle with an incised

design of fish; a striking Seventeenth Century porcelain jar that has an

underglaze iron-brown design of bamboo and plum; and a large porcelain jar

produced in the second half of the Eighteenth Century that is decorated with a

lively design of a tiger, magpies, and haet'ae (mythical lion-dog) painted

under the glaze in cobalt blue and copper red.

Gold

Spectacular gold ornaments such as an elaborate crown and delicate earrings

produced from the late Fourth to the Sixth Century, in the Three Kingdoms

period (57 BC-668 AD) reflect the sumptuous lifestyle and authority of royal

families of Korea's first centralized states. The exhibition also includes a

wide variety of bronze objects that were created using a technology imported

from northern China around the Tenth Century BC.

Buddhist Works

Buddhism, introduced from China in the Fourth Century, flourished throughout

the peninsula in the Unified Silla (668-935) and Koryo periods, when Korean

artists produced some of the world's most sophisticated and technically

accomplished Buddhist works. The importance of Buddhism in daily life and its

pervasive influence as a creative and spiritual force in early Korean society

are seen, for example, in silver-inlaid bronze incense burners and vessels, as

well as bronze bells and gongs made for use in temples. Among the monuments of

Buddhist art is a large gilt-bronze image of the bodhisattva Maitreya, from

the late Sixth Century, whose contemplative expression epitomizes the powerful

presence of Korean Buddhist sculpture. Portable shrines and reliquaries

exquisitely crafted in gilt bronze are evidence of the increasingly personal

expression of Buddhist devotion in the Koryo dynasty. Although suppressed by

the state, Buddhism continued to find expression in the arts of the Choson

period.

Scholar's Accessories

Elegant yet restrained lacquerware, furniture, and other scholars' accessories

became popular in the Fourteenth Century with the rise of the Yangban, the

members of the "two orders" of civil and military officials who dominated the

political, economic, and cultural life of the Choson dynasty.

Paintings

While there is evidence of a diverse painting tradition in Korea, most of the

earliest surviving paintings are Koryo Buddhist devotional icons. Prized in

China and Japan, where many of them were preserved in temple collections,

these works include images of Buddhist deities and illuminated manuscripts.

The inaugural Arts of Korea exhibition includes: an early Fourteenth Century

hanging scroll, "Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara," depicting one of the most

popular Buddhist deities of the Koryo period wearing beautiful robes and

sashes; a hanging scroll dating from the first half of the Fourteenth Century,

"Amitabha and Kshitigarbha (Chijang)," which combines the Buddha Amitabha and

the bodhisattva Kshitigarbha in one composition and represents the only known

example of this iconography in Koryo Buddhist painting; and the Fourteenth

Century Illustrated Manuscript of the Lotus Sutra, a folding book with elegant

calligraphy written in silver pigment and a frontispiece executed in gold

portraying popular tales from the sutra.

In addition to court-sponsored secular painting, works attributable to

individual artists became more numerous in the Choson period. Among them were

the preeminent court painter An Kyon (active circa 1440-70) and the literati

artist Chong Son (1676-1759), who saw themselves as heirs to a long tradition

of scholar-artists in China.

While deeply indebted to the themes, techniques, and critical tradition of

Chinese painting, Korean artists sought to create individual stylistic

vocabularies, especially in landscape painting. This new interest culminated

in the so-called true-view landscape movement of the Eighteenth Century, which

advocated the depiction of actual Korean scenery as an alternative to the

classical themes of Chinese landscape painting.

The Eighteenth Century also saw the emergence of a unique tradition of genre

painting, whose acknowledged master practitioners, Kim Hong-do (1745-1806) and

Sin Ynk-bok (circa 1758-after 1813), portrayed the daily life of all classes

of Korean society -- from carpenters and iron forgers to aristocrats and

scholars -- in all its variety and liveliness. An album painting of a dancer

performing to the accompaniment of a small troupe of musicians, Dancer and

Musicians, demonstrates Kim's remarkable talent in conveying sensitive

observations of narrative detail.

The exhibition was organized by Wen C. Fong, consultative chairman, department

of Asian art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in cooperation with Chung

Yang-mo, director general, the National Museum of Korea, Seoul. An advisory

committee of leading senior Korean art scholars also helped organize the

exhibition and produce the catalogue.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, Arts of Korea,

with essays by Chung Yang-mo, Ahn Hwi-joon, Yi Song-mi, Kim Lena, Kim Hongnam,

Pak Youngsook, and Jonathan W. Best. The coordinating editor of the catalogue

is Judith G. Smith. Published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the hardcover

edition is $50, and is available in the Museum's Bookshop.

The exhibition design was by Michael Batista; graphics by Jill Hammarberg; and

lighting is by Zack Zanolli.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street,

212/879-5500.