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Korean Gallery Opens at Guimet Museum

After five years of extensive renovation and repair, the Guimet National Mu-seum of Asian Arts in Paris, Europe? leading Asian art museum, reopened with a grand ceremony on January 15. As part of the recent renovation work, the Korean Gallery, which previously occupied an area of 66m2, has been expanded five-fold to 350m2, thus presenting a valuable opportunity to introduce Korean art to European museumgoers. The opening ceremony was attended by French President Jacques Chirac and many distinguished figures from the art and cultural circles of Europe and Asia.

The Guimet Museum was established in 1889 by the Lyon businessman Emile Guimet (1836-1918). In its early days, the museum was centered around the private collection of its founder, while on the strength of interest in Orientalism that dominated the late 1800s it developed to include a wide range of art from China, Japan, and other Northeast Asian countries, as well as from the Mediterranean area such as Egypt and Turkey. In 1945, France organized a consolidation of Asian artifacts, under which all of the Louvre? Asian art was relocated to the Guimet and all non-Asian art at the Guimet was sent to the Louvre. This turned the Guimet virtually overnight into the leading museum of Asian art in France.

As the Guimet? collection grew rapidly, due to a lack of exhibition space the museum was expanded on several different occasions. In this process, however, the architectural beauty of the original building was lost while the existing museum was no longer able to properly fulfill its intended function. As a result, in 1996 the museum was closed for full-scale renovation and repair in order to prepare it for the new century.
The five-year renovation project focused on restoring the beauty of the original building, expanding exhibition areas and storage spaces, improving facilities for visitors, and constructing a new lecture hall and other cultural facilities. Thanks to the latest in exhibition design techniques, the Guimet once again attests to the cultural exellence of the French.

Relations between Korea and the Guimet Museum date back to 1893, when the first gallery of Korean art was opened there. At that time, the Korean collection consisted of the works gathered by the explorer and collector Charles Varat, and those of Collin de Plancy, a diplomat who had been posted to Korea. Many of these works were displayed at the Paris Exposition held in 1900. Even today, the collections of Varat and de Plancy remain the backbone of the Guimet? Korean collection.

Unfortunately, many of these artifacts were lost during World War I. The Korean gallery was closed in 1919 and did not reopen until 1970, at which time it was allocated a very small exhibition space. After World War II additional Korean works were purchased from Japan, but in many cases Korean works were mistakenly classified as Japanese or Chinese and often ended up in the collections of Japanese and Chinese art purchased or donated to the museum.

When the decision was made in the early 1990s to expand the museum's Korean gallery, one of the most important tasks was to carefully examine the Japanese and Chinese collections to detect any misidentified Korean art works.
The Guimet now has some 1,000 Korean works in its collection. In 1998, Korea? National Research Institute of Cultural Properties (NRICP) conducted an on-site survey and analysis of the Korean collection, which marked the first time that all the Guimet? Korean art works were made available for inspection by a Korean research organization. The NRICP survey succeeded in identifying the Chinese and Japanese works mixed in with the Korean collection, but according to Pierre Cambon, the curator in charge, the task of examining the Chinese and Japanese collections to find Korean pieces remains to be completed.

The opening exhibition of the Korean Gallery featured the best of the museum? Korean collection, and as such generated a great deal of interest in Korean art. Major works in the collection include earthenware from the Three Kingdoms period, a gilt bronze figure of Sakyamuni Tagatha from the Unified Silla period, a painting of Water-Moon Avalokitesvara from the Goryeo dynasty, a genre folding-screen painting by Kim Hong-do from the Joseon dynasty, a folding screen of flowers and birds by Yi Han-cheol, and various pieces of wooden furniture.

To commemorate the opening of the Korean Gallery, the Guimet is preparing a catalogue "L'Art Coreen au Musee Guimet," written by curator Pierre Cambon. The following is an excerpt from the catalogue that notes the significance of the Korean Gallery and the museum? intentions in regard to the exhibition? future direction:

"With the reopening of the Guimet Museum in 2001, the Korean collection will once again be restored to the status it enjoyed in the early days. The museum is no longer seeking a nominal balance between very different civilizations. Rather, it is trying to show the relationship and cross influences between them, thus emphasizing the diversity of the Guimet's collection. The Korean Gallery is located between the Chinese and Japanese galleries as a way to stress the bridging role played by Korea in the cultural exchange between these two countries. At the same time, the unique qualities of Korean art will also be accentuated. However, it is not our intent to present the art of Korea, Japan, and China in the same way; to do so would be irrational considering the nature of the works. At present, it is our purpose to emphasize the uniqueness of Korean art by showing the most accurate vision of typically Korean aesthetics seen in such items as Goryeo metalwork, calligraphic paintings, stone figures, and tomb pillars. We will be presenting Korean art in the most open and unprejudiced manner, showing how the coexistence of artistic sensibility and imagination has resulted in an art that maintains both wit and humor with a sense of propriety."

Upon the reopening of the Guimet Museum, it is hoped that the Korean Gallery will flourish, along with the museum itself to serve as a prominent stage for exhibiting Korean and Asian art to audiences in France and throughout Europe.

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