Works from the largest gift of traditional Korean art in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), are currently on show until June. In 2021, the museum announced the acquisition of an initial major gift of 100 works of Asian art from Dr Chester Chang and Dr Cameron C Chang (MD). Chester Chang (Chang Jung Ki), a former LACMA trustee, who was born in Seoul in 1939; he and his son Cameron are descended, through Chester’s mother, Min Byeongyoon, from the family of Queen Min (1851–1895), the last queen of the Joseon dynasty (known posthumously as Empress Myeongseong).
The museum has a history of featuring Korean art – from the end of 2022 running into 2023, the museum organised two back-to-back exhibition on Korean modern and contemporary art: Park Dae Sung: Virtuous Ink and Contemporary Brush and The Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art. This exhibition continues this tradition.
The Chang Collection
The Chang collection consists primarily of traditional Korean paintings, calligraphy, sculpture, ceramics, lacquers, furniture, and other works of art ranging in date from the Three Kingdoms Period (circa 57 BC-AD 668) to the 20th century. The bulk of the works has remained within a single family for a century and has never publicly been on view. Organised chronologically and by material, the exhibition presents 35 of these donated and promised gifts, including traditional Korean secular and religious paintings, calligraphies, rare mid-20th-century oil paintings from both North and South Korea, and ceramics of the Goryeo (918–1392) and Joseon (1392–1910) dynasties.
LACMA’s Korean Galleries are the largest in the US and the city hosts the largest Korean population outside of Korea. The gallery shows a diverse selection of Korean paintings, ink paintings and calligraphy, ceramics, textiles, and Buddhist art. The ceramics span nearly 2,000 years of Korean history, from the Three Kingdoms Period (57 BC–AD 668) to the present, while the paintings focus on works from the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910). Korea possesses a long tradition of landscape painting, which can be traced back to the tomb murals of the Goguryeo kingdom (37 BC-AD 668), the region comprising the northern part of the Korean peninsula and much of northeast China, which had consolidated its territories by the early 4th century. During the following centuries art was mainly focused on Buddhist painting and it was not until the 14th century, at the beginning of the Joseon dynasty (1392-1897), other styles of painting began to flourish, influenced by the Ming culture from China.
Korean Landscape Painting
By the 18th century, ‘true view’ landscape painting emerged in Korean art. Within this genre, the court painter Yi Inmun (1745-1821) is considered one of the great landscape painters of the 18th century, and associated with the Chinese North School. In the exhibition, there is a painting traditionally attributed to Yi Inmun, The Poet Lee Baek (Li Bai) Watching a Waterfall. Lee Tae-ho, writing in The International Journal of Korean Art and Archaeology, considers true-view landscapes, stating: ‘True-view landscape paintings of the late Joseon dynasty represent an important artistic trend in the history of Korean culture. While there is nothing extraordinary about Joseon artists painting their native land, the development of true-view landscape painting, including the work of Jeong Seon (1676-1759), is considered a landmark in the literary and artistic history of the late Joseon dynasty. One reason is that it represents a quantum leap from the early Joseon mode of landscape painting, which was largely inspired by Chinese styles from the Song and Ming dynasties. The emergence of true-view landscape painting (jingyeong sansuhwa), therefore, embodies the will of contemporary Korean artists to turn their attention back to their native land, refusing to follow Chinese ideals of landscape beauty. Ultimately, it was a notable shift from illusionary idealism to truthful realism’. Continuing, ‘As an increasing number of painters sketched on site after close inspection, true-view landscape painting further developed in the late 18th century with Yi Inmun taking an interest in sketching from actual sites’. A highlight of this exhibition is a landscape traditionally attributed to the artist Yi Inmun.
Modern Korean Painting
Moving to the modern era of traditional Korean art, another painting on show is a portrait by Kim Kwan-ho (1890-1959) of his daughter. Born in Pyongyang, Kim was the second Korean to study Western oil painting in Japan, and is recognised for introducing nude painting to Korea. For his Tokyo School of Fine Arts graduation work, Haejillyok (Dusk), he was awarded with a ‘Special Award’ at the 1916 annual Bunten, the Japanese national art exhibit. After holding his first solo exhibition that December, Kim continued to participate in national and group exhibitions during the next several years, and in 1923 became the first Korean to receive an award for his painting Hosu (Lake), displayed in the Western-style painting section of the Sonjon, the Japan-installed annual national art exhibition of Korea. Kim worked as a painter and book illustrator for several years in Pyongyang. South Korean studies claim that he gave up painting after 1927, but he did reappear in 1946 when he became the head of the Pyongyang Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Korean Artists Union. He may also have taught at the Pyongyang Art School.
Korean Ceramics
One of the most enduring ceramic traditions in Korea is that of celadon, a refined blue-green glaze of varying hues, which began to take root in the Korean peninsula from the late 9th century onwards. It reached its zenith in the 12th century, when koryo ch’ongja, Goryeo celadons, became the most technologically advanced. The term goryeo formed the basis for the modern name of the country, as was its Chinese name, gaoli, which morphed into goryeo when Korea emerged from the Unified Silla (668-935) period to enjoy extensive trade with Song China (960-1279) via the ports of Guangzhou in southern China. It is from this time that a large variety of luxury goods, including silk and particularly celadon objects from the Yue kilns in Zhejiang reached the Korean peninsula.
Celadon technology from Song-dynasty China (960-1279) had reached Korea by sea, with the first experiments being conducted at the Cholla kilns on the south and southwest coast. However, the desired grey-blue, or blue-green, hue could only achieved in the 12th century. The finest products designated for the Goryeo court at Kaesong were then shipped to the far north. A well-known reference to Korean celadon had been made by the Song-dynasty Emperor Huizong’s emissary, Xu Jing, when he visited Kaesong in 1123. His account, Xuanhe fengshi Gaoli tujing (1124), ‘‘Illustrated Record of the Xuanhe Envoy to Korea’, mentions the lustre of celadon at court and its predilection for silverware.
Buncheong ceramics are a descendant of celadon ware, which has decoration created through the use of slip inlaid into or applied over a grey stoneware body and covered by a thin, lightly hued celadon glaze. The stoneware body is similar to that of Goryeo celadon ware, just as the glaze is also closely related, however, because the glaze of buncheong ware is lighter in hue and more thinly applied than that of celadon ware, buncheong ware typically appears grey rather than bluish green. Buncheong ware was produced at numerous kilns throughout Korea, but particularly in the southwestern part of the peninsula. The most famous buncheong kilns, particularly those of the 16th century, were located at Gyeryongsan, in Chungcheongnam-do.
Blue and White Ceramics
In the later periods, porcelains with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue, commonly known as blue-and-white ware, began to appear by mid-15th century, featuring artistry distinctive of the Joseon dynasty. In the 17th century, however, the difficulty of importation of cobalt blue pigment from China, due to the Qing invasion of the Korean peninsula, resulted in the rise in popularity of motifs drawn in iron-brown pigment. In the first half of the 18th century, a new type of blue-and-white ware was developed, known in Japan as ‘autumn-grass style’, in which plants were unpretentiously depicted on a milky white body in pale blue pigment. In 1752, when the imperial kilns were gathered in Buwong-ri, Gwangju, ceramic production flourished under stable condition, including blue-and-white ware and porcelain with skilful use of underglaze copper-red or iron-brown decoration, as well as stationery and wine vessels that suited the tastes of the literati. By the 19th century, the rise of the middle classes led to the development of auspicious symbols wishing for longevity and fecundity, as well as motifs containing elements of folk painting that represented the hope of receiving practical benefits in this world that became part of traditional Korean art. They became some of the most commonly used styles seen across all crafts.
Korean art history is a relatively new field of academic study in the US, and LACMA’s expanded collection will provide a strong foundation for future research, exhibitions, and public programmes, especially as this field evolves.
Until 30 June, 2024, traditional Korean art at LACMA, Los Angeles, lacma.org
