South Korea has transformed from a country devastated by war in the late 1950s to a leading cultural powerhouse of the 21st century. Through the voices of fans, journalists, practitioners, novelists and academics, Hallyu! explores the makings of the Korean Wave of cultural influence over the interlinked creative industries of cinema, drama, music, fandom, beauty … [Read More]
Booklist: Exhibition catalogues
North Korea’s Public Face: 20th-century Propaganda Posters from the Zellweger Collection
This catalogue is published to coincide with the UMAG exhibition North Korea’s Public Face: 20th-century Propaganda Posters from the Zellweger Collection. For most people outside of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), it may come as a revelation that art is available in North Korea, or that it is a well-developed feature of national culture. … [Read More]
Couture Korea
From the publisher’s website: Couture Korea highlights traditional ways of dressing and shows how contemporary haute couture is rooted in Korean tradition. Through garments including baeja (woman’s vest), po (man’s outerwear), and baegilbok (child’s costume for the 100th-day celebration), this Korean fashion book explores how each gender dresses during different seasons, on special occasions, and … [Read More]
Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West through Christianity
The written word, in Korean and English, constantly struggles to interpret and describe the remarkable period of Korean history from the late nineteenth century to 1945, generally considered as marking the watershed between pre-modernity and the beginning of modernity. This remarkable time saw the end of the 500-year-old Joseon dynasty, brutal colonial occupation by Japan … [Read More]
Korean Buncheong Ceramics from Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art
From the publisher’s website: Sensuous, whimsical, sophisticated, rustic, and masterful, buncheong ceramics emerged in Korea at the end of the fourteenth century. This breathtakingly diverse expression grew out of inlaid celadon, the celebrated aristocratic stoneware synonymous with the Goryeo period (1918–1392). During the nearly two centuries of its production, buncheong would be increasingly taken up … [Read More]
Contemporary Korean Architecture: Megacity Network
Seoul – one of the most densely populated urban areas on the planet. The tremendous pressure this megacity exacts on architecture in terms of spatial intensification, verticalization and amplification, challenges architectural stereotypes and promotes innovation. Megacity Network presents 32 projects by 16 representative Korean architects from the last ten years. Being more like mixtures and hybrids of … [Read More]