Joseon art to headline exhibitions at National Museum of Korea
Museums around the country have released their exhibition plans for the year, with the National Museum of Korea announcing “Art of Early Joseon,” a three-month exhibition that opens in June.
Museum officials characterized the exhibition as one of the most definitive to date at the state-run institution.
“It will be about highlighting the expressive and technical achievements in art of the early years of Joseon. We’ve been working with Japanese museums and individuals to make the show happen,” an NMK official said. The first 200 years of the Joseon era (1392-1910) will be under review.
Approximately 250 items, spanning from royal paintings to ceramics as well as Buddhist art of the period, will be on display.
From April to September, the country’s largest museum by holdings, the National Museum of Korea, will hold an exhibition focusing on Oceanian culture, a first for a museum in Korea.
“It will be a chance to study the island nations of the Pacific,” another official said, adding that the title of the show, which is being prepared with the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, has yet to be decided.
The French museum will be loaning related artifacts for the touring exhibition, which will make a stop at the Jeonnam Museum of Art before returning to France. Crafts and sculpture will make up a large portion of the objects on display.
The Gyeongju National Museum -- one of the NMK’s 13 branch museums, located in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province -- will time an exhibition for the heads of state who will arrive in the ancient Silla capital for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
The exhibition is likely to feature the six gold crowns from the Silla Kingdom (57 BC-935 AD) that have been excavated so far, marking the first time all six gold crowns will be displayed together.
“The timing is perfect for promoting Silla’s signature gold,” a Gyeongju National Museum official said, noting the kingdom’s fascination with the yellow precious metal found in almost all Silla relics.
The National Palace Museum of Korea, meanwhile, will showcase six paintings that once hung at Changdeokgung, one of the five Joseon-era palaces in Seoul.
The showing will take place in August, which will mark the first public display of two paintings that used to hang in the royal auxiliary bedroom.
An exhibition titled “Re: Reborn, the Science of Restoration” will run from October to December at the National Palace Museum located in Gyeongbokgung, exploring how paintings and ceramics benefit from restoration processes.
In July and October, the museum will share its restoration processes, vital to promoting Korean culture overseas.
The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History is preparing a number of exhibitions as well.
On Aug. 15, the museum will hold a Liberation Day-themed exhibit on the Korean national flag. The exhibition will explore how Taegeukgi has changed over time and in different places and what that means for Koreans and the country, according to the museum.
A special exhibition “Reclaiming History” will follow in December to shed light on the efforts made to rebuild the country after Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, marking the 80th anniversary of liberation.
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