Coming up next Saturday at the British Museum, an event focusing on Joseon music and culture: The art and sounds of Korea Saturday 14 November 2015, 13.15–14.15 British Museum, Room 67 (The Korea Foundation Gallery) A special gallery talk by Eleanor S Hyun, British Museum, and Hyelim Kim, taegŭm performer. Gallery talks are suitable for […]
Category: Permanent displays
KCC to fund British Museum curator
Interesting that it’s the KCC doing this. Normally I would expect a chaebol or an NGO like the Korea Foundation to fund this sort of post. Anyway, below is the official press release from the British Museum website. This is an additional curatorial post, working under the existing senior curator Sasche Priewe, who will continue […]
Bought for £10 from a Parisian cheese merchant, Lady Hyegyong’s Uigwe is now digitised
The Joseon court knew how to document things. And one of those court records, recently digitised and put online by the British Library, shows they also knew how to celebrate. The Uigwe – The Royal Protocols of the Joseon Dynasty – were included in the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2006. In its […]
New book on Korean artefacts in Oxford
Oxford’s Bodleian Library announces the publication of a new book on historic Korean artefacts in the University’s collections. It accompanies an exhibition which runs 26 August to 26 September 2011 in the Proscholium at the Bodleian Library: Korean Treasures: Rare Books, Manuscripts and Artefacts in the Bodleian Libraries and Museums of Oxford University by Minh […]
Jeju’s destiny is set in stone
Darren Southcott, recently returned from a stint in Jeju-do, appreciates one of the island’s unique attractions: Jeju Stone Park In this age of globalisation, authentic Korea may seem elusive and challenging for the visitor to find, but there are many sites which seek to preserve the nation’s cultural spirit. Jeju Island, despite heavy tourist development, […]
The LKL Korea Trip 2009 pt 8: Galleries old and new
Wednesday 22 July 2009 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 […]
The Tripitaka Koreana part 2 – the Depository Building
Matthew Jackson continues his series of articles on the important treasures from Korea’s past
The Tripitaka Koreana – part 1
Matthew Jackson continues his series of articles on the important treasures from Korea’s past
The Pensive Bodhisattva comes to Brussels
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 […]
The Sarira Casket
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 […]
A visit to the Whanki Museum (환기 미술관)
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 […]
Is the French ambassador a fibber, or did Yonhap misunderstand?
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 […]
Moon jars old and new
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 […]
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 […]
British Museum and AKS celebrate Chuseok
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 […]
The Leeum Art Gallery, Seoul
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 […]
Gwacheon’s National Museum of Contemporary Art
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 […]