A total of 37 curators of Korean art from 12 countries participated in the Korea Foundation’s 13th international curatorial workshop held from October 24 to November 3, under the theme of “Korean Ceramics in East Asia: Their Influence and Development.” The participants represented museums which maintain permanent galleries for Korean art, including the British Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Oriental Art, Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Japan, National Museum of Oriental Art of Italy, and the Museum of Mexican Culture and History, as well as other museums with sizable collections of Korean artworks.

Korean Ceramics Widely Shown Abroad
Ceramics constitute a great majority of Korean artifacts housed at overseas museums. They range from roof tiles of the Three Kingdoms period to celadon of the Goryeo Dynasty and white porcelain of the Joseon Dynasty, which represent the cutting-edge technology of their respective eras. Asian ceramics have contributed to the recognition of Asia’s cultural and artistic achievements in the West. In particular, Korean ceramics represented by celadon, buncheong and white porcelain wares occupy important places in the history of ceramics. The growing awareness of the value of Korean ceramic art

among connoisseurs around the world is proven by record-breaking prices fetched by Korean pottery works at international auctions. In recent years, the Korea Foundation has had constant requests for a workshop focused on Korean ceramic art from overseas museum personnel and art historians.

This year’s workshop theme was an answer to the requests. In 2001, a broad range of topics was discussed under a similar theme, “Korean Ceramics.”

Broader Spectrum of Participants
The KF annual curatorial workshop has attracted a total of 135 museum curators and art historians from 23 countries over the past 12 years. This year’s workshop had 37 participants from 12 countries. Among them were Steven Little, head curator of the Chinese and Korean art department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Elizabeth McKillop, deputy director of the Victoria and Albert Museum Museum, the United Kingdom; Uta Werlich, senior curator for East Asia at Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany; and Kevin McLoughlin, principal curator for East and Central Asia, at the National Museum of Scotland.

Cultural Refinement and Originality

The workshop began with a keynote presentation on “The Aesthetic Elements of Korean Ceramics: Repetition of the Trend toward Pattern-less Pottery,” by Kim Jae-yeol, former deputy director of Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, which was followed by seven lecture sessions covering such topics as ceramics of the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods as well as contemporary Korean ceramic arts. Participants had field trips to various pottery exhibition sites, including the Bunwon Royal Porcelain Museum, a buncheong kiln site at Mt. Mudeung, Gangjin Celadon Museum, and the National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage. They also attended an international symposium hosted by the National Museum of Korea, and visited the Gyeonggi International Ceramics Biennale in Icheon, the Cheongju International Craft Biennale, and the millennial anniversary for the Tripitaka Koreana.

The Foundation has conducted the annual workshop since 1999 for the purpose of providing curators of Korean art from around the world with on-site opportunities to deepen their knowledge and expertise in Korean culture and arts. The workshop has motivated many curators to organize Korean art exhibitions at their respective museums and renovate their Korean galleries. The workshop has thus contributed greatly to the the promotion of Korean art in the world and improvement of Korea-related exhibitions abroad. Some participants have altered their career path to focus on Korean art, while others have gained promotion to higher positions at their museums.

Culture and Arts Department