Korean stoneware vessels displayed in the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art on Thursday. (Yonhap News)
A collection of South Korea’s ancient ceramics, known for the art of inlaying designs using black-and-white pigments, has arrived in Washington for display at a national museum, officials said Thursday.
Forty-four stoneware vessels dating from the 11th through the 16th century will be displayed in the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery starting this weekend, according to the officials. The assemblage showcases a decorative technique known as “sanggam.”
Originally, sanggam involved inlaying white and black pigments into stamped or carved motifs to create images of cranes, clouds, ducks, lotuses, and willows that appear to float within a limpid green glaze.
“Sanggam was one of Korea’s great contributions to worldwide ideas of ceramic decoration, producing vessels distinguished by sharply contrasting colors, crisp outlines and repeating pictorial patterns,” said Louise Court, curator of ceramics.
Titled, “Cranes and Clouds: The Korean Art of Ceramic Inlay,” the open-ended exhibition highlights the evolving use of inlay during the latter half of Korea’s Goryeo dynasty (918-1392) and the early centuries of the Joseon dynasty (1392-1897), the museum said in a press release.
The Korean ceramics will be installed in the newly renovated Gallery 14 at Freer, which opened in 1923 to house a world-renowned collection of art from Korea, China, Japan, South and Southeast Asia, and the Near East.
The National Museum of Korea has provided financial and curatorial support for the exhibit.
(Yonhap News)
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