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Category Archives: Park Young-sook

Moon jars old and new

25-Sep-07
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 Museum's Korean collection, the Chosun dynasty vase - around 300 years old - picked up by Bernard Leach in Seoul in the 1930s. Surrounding the vase are other objects and displays to give it context: a reproduction of Lord Snowdon's photograph of the moon vase with Lucie Rie, taken in her studio. images of many of the surviving moon jars from the Chosun dynasty - photographed by ...
Also filed in British Museum, Ceramics, Chuseok 2007, Permanent displays, Shin Mee-kyung | | Comments (0) »

Focus on a piece of happiness

12-Sep-07

Focus on a piece of happiness

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 happiness" ((Source: Gina Ha-Gorlin in the British Musuem's Autumn 2007 magazine)). That Jar now resides in the British Museum as one of the highlights of its Korean collection. From 20 September for six weeks, that piece of happiness will be the British Museum's "Object in Focus". Gina Ha-Gorlin, Arts Council Fellow at the museum, has planned an exhibition in room 3 (at the entrance to the ...
Also filed in British Museum, Ceramics, Chuseok 2007, Events news, Kim Whanki, Nam June Paik, Permanent displays | | Comments (0) »

Farewell to Seoul

25-Jan-07
Some of the highlights and not-so-highlights of my visit to Seoul. First the good. Soundday in Hongdae Seoul's National Museum of Contemporary Arts The Leeum Gallery (post to come soon once I've done a bit of research. Now done. Post is here) Insadong. Yes, there's some touristy tat for sale, but there's also some really high quality stuff as well. Fabric designer Lee Geon Maan has two outlets, selling ties, scarves, handbags and purses to die for, numerous shops contain the patchwork silk chogakpo (above right), while you can also spend millions of Won on ceramics. Park Young Sook has a gallery to herself and also takes up most if not all of a gallery on the other side of the road. Both galleries ...
Also filed in Seoul, Travel, Weekends in Korea | | Comments (3) »

Traditional Yet Contemporary sale at Bonhams

22-Nov-06
The sale of contemporary Japanese and Korean ceramics at Bonhams on 7 November was the first time that a London auction had a focus on Korean work. As such, there was a lot of admiration from buyers as to the quality of the work, but when it came to putting hands in pockets buyers were more cautious. With limited past sale history to go on, the punters were unwilling to speculate. I'm always disappointed when I go into a gallery and the nice young lady behind the counter starts talking about how well a particular artist has done at auction, and what a great investment this artist is going to be. Naively, I would like to think that people buy works ...
Also filed in Ceramics, General arts news, Traditional yet Contemporary | | Comments (0) »

Review: Traditional yet Contemporary

08-Jun-06
Air Gallery, London, May 29 - June 3 2006 As Stephanie Seung-min Kim says in her article introducing the exhibition, "...culture can only be seen in a clear light when compared with other cultures. I believe that is why Korean ceramic works have to be judged more in an international setting." The exhibition demonstrated the truth of this statement, but not, I think, in the way she intended. Related posts:Traditional Yet Contemporary sale at Bonhams The sale of contemporary Japanese and Korean ceramics at Bonhams...Korean Ceramics - Traditional Yet Contemporary One of the highlights of this year’s Korean festival is...Focus on a piece of happiness The story goes that Bernard Leach, browsing in a... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another ...
Also filed in Ceramics, Event reports and reviews, London Korean Festival 2006, Roe Kyung-jo, Traditional yet Contemporary | | Comments (0) »

Korean Ceramics - Traditional Yet Contemporary

27-May-06
One of the highlights of this year's Korean festival is likely to be the exhibition at Air Gallery in Dover Street -- juxtaposing the work of contemporary British potters with the work of modern Korean ceramic artists. Stephanie Seungmin Kim, curator of the show, explains. There's something rather comforting about traditional Korean ceramics. And this long and authentic tradition of Korean ceramic techniques is revitalized by modern ceramic artists to reveal the very best of the Modern Korean ceramics. These creations are now on show in London for a week, ensconced in the world of British contemporary arts. A week away from the land where its very own earth clay shaped them developed into a mission for me as some sort ...
Also filed in Ceramics, Events news, London Korean Festival 2006, Roe Kyung-jo, Traditional yet Contemporary | | Comments (0) »