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Permanent displays

The Stone Buddha in the British Museum

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by Eunjung Shin on 16 December, 2009

in British Museum, Buddhism, History & heritage, Permanent displays, Sculpture

Eunjung Shin continues her survey of the treasures in the Korean gallery in the British Museum

As you enter the Korean gallery in the British Museum you might easily overlook the small stone Buddha at the entrance, his face turned modestly to the ground. If you want to see his expression, you have to sit down [...]

Tagged as: Kyongju

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The full moon jar in the British Museum

20 November 2009 British Museum
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Eunjung Shin commences a series of articles helping those unfamiliar with Korean art to understand some of the treasures in the Korean Gallery in the British Museum. Her first choice is the famous Moon Jar.

Whenever people ask me what the essential characteristic of Korean art is, I always answer: ‘naturalism’. The full moon jar [...]

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The LKL Korea Trip 2009 pt 8: Galleries old and new

5 August 2009 I-MYU
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Wednesday 22 July

A pleasant late start to the morning. Im Jeongae from London’s I-MYU gallery happens to be in town, looking after the show of British artists at the Total Museum. We cruise the Samcheong-dong galleries together as the heat of the day becomes slightly cooler, and the daylight light becomes milkier. People are staring [...]

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The Tripitaka Koreana part 2 – the Depository Building

20 November 2008 Buddhism
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Matthew Jackson continues his series of articles on the important treasures from Korea’s past

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The Tripitaka Koreana – part 1

2 November 2008 Buddhism
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Matthew Jackson continues his series of articles on the important treasures from Korea’s past

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The Pensive Bodhisattva comes to Brussels

6 October 2008 Bozar 2008
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By Matthew Jackson
The centrepiece of the Bozar exhibition of Korean Buddhist Art, beginning in Brussels on the 10th of October, will be the Pensive Bodhisattva statue, Korea’s National Treasure No. 83. It is difficult to describe in words why the statue is regarded so highly as a work of Buddhist art, because its qualities consist [...]

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The Sarira Casket

27 September 2008 History & heritage
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Matthew Jackson describes one of the Buddhist treasures in the Seoul National Museum.

Of the few people I have asked who have visited the Seoul National Museum, no one has mentioned the Kameun Sarira Casket as the high point of their tour. When I visited the museum myself, even though I was specifically looking out for [...]

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A visit to the Whanki Museum (환기 미술관)

23 February 2008 Exhibition reviews and comment
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The Korea Tourist Office website advises us that Kim Hwan-gi (1913-1974) (known internationally as Kim Whanki — and he signs his paintings just plain “Whanki”) “was Korea’s top artist of modernism”. It is therefore frustrating that when you go into the Tourist Information Offices in Insadong no-one has heard of him, still less of the [...]

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Is the French ambassador a fibber, or did Yonhap misunderstand?

22 November 2007 Permanent displays

A year ago there was a feature in Yonhap about a new museum in Paris which would feature Korean artifacts in its collection.
Some 600 art pieces from Korea, about 88 of South Korean origin and about 505 of North Korean origin, will be displayed at the museum
said the French ambassador at a press briefing. The [...]

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Moon jars old and new

25 September 2007 British Museum
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There were moon jars a-plenty at the British Museum on Saturday: old and new, whole and smashed, real and fake and, as is the nature of these objects, none of them perfectly spherical.

In pride of place in Room 3, just as you enter the museum, is one of the prized items in the British [...]

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Focus on a piece of happiness

12 September 2007 British Museum
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The story goes that Bernard Leach, browsing in a Seoul antiques store in the mid 1930s, came across a Choson dynasty Moon Jar and held his head in disbelief at its beauty. And, after one of the more inspired impulse buys in recent art history, he walked out of the shop “carrying a piece of [...]

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Bang goes Chuseok

5 September 2007 Anglo-Korean Society

Two events to celebrate Chuseok, Korea’s harvest festival.
Firstly, the Anglo-Korean Society will be having a buffet dinner at Young Bean Kwan on the Barbican highwalks in the City on 20 September. Guest of honour will be Ambassador Cho.
There will be a short pre-dinner talk on Korean customs and food, and guests will be entertained by [...]

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The Leeum Art Gallery, Seoul

11 February 2007 Chang Uc-chin
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A brief walk from Hangangjin subway stop (line 6) near Itaewon is the Leeum Gallery, set up by Samsung. No expense has been spared on the building itself, with prestigious foreign architects engaged to build it, and an impressive collection of artworks.
The building itself is very spacious, and has three main sections. Older artworks are [...]

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Seoul’s National Museum of Contemporary Art

22 January 2007 Korea Museum of Contemporary Art
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45 minutes from the downtown area of Seoul is a rather special place. Take line 4 to Seoul Grand Park (Gwacheon, 과천), and board the free shuttle bus which runs from near the exit. The Lonely Planet says it would take 20 minutes to walk to the gallery, but it seemed to take the bus [...]

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AKS V&A visit

3 October 2006 Anglo-Korean Society

Many thanks to Sylvia Park for organising a fun evening of food and learning on 20 September, and of course to Beth McKillop, curator of the V&A’s Asian collection, for guiding the assembled company through the V&A’s Korean exhibits.
The evening started in the Samsung gallery at the V&A, in front of the stoneware from [...]

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