한국국제교류재단

On June 26, 2013, a Korean gallery opened for the fi rst time at the Cleveland Museum of Art, a feat that was acomplished 100 years after the construction of the museum in 1913. With the financial assistance of the Korea Foundation, Korean art was granted a private exhibition room, which has been named the Korea Foundation Gallery. I was appointed to the museum as the curator of Korean and Japanese art in 2010, in which capacity I laid down the plans for setting up the Korean gallery. In 2011, I worked on opening the Korean gallery as a consulting curator.

The idea for the establishment of a Korean gallery came about in 1999 through the renovation plan of the museum. As the Asian gallery was being reorganized, Korean art, which had previously been displayed in one part of the Japanese gallery, was given a space of its own. The Korean gallery was located next to the Japanese gallery in the north building, which had been newly designed by the architect Rafael Viñoly. In the original design, visitors could only reach the Korean gallery by going through the Japanese gallery. When it became clear that Korea and Japan would have to share a single entrance, I devised a plan to make another zone between the two based on Buddhist art, a genre of art shared by both countries. As a result, a gallery of Korea-Japan Buddhism now appeared between the Korean gallery and the Japanese gallery, which stretch out on either side.

It is very signifi cant that the Korean gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art was furnished with pieces from the museum’s own collection rather than with exhibits borrowed from other organizations. It could be said that the groundwork for the establishment of the Korean gallery was laid by the late Sherman Lee, former museum director and a scholar of Asian art, and by Michael Cunningham, my predecessor in the position, who poured his energy into collecting Korean art. While the museum’s current collection of Korean art, which is around 300 pieces, is not so large as its collections of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian art, this collection is fi lled with rigorously selected masterpieces that are absolutely essential to Korean art history. The pieces exhibited in the gallery are divided into four themes: the beginning of ancient civilization, Buddhist art, Korean ceramics, and Joseon Dynasty paintings.

I would like to share a touching story about the relationship between Korea and Cleveland. Korean artwork first came to Cleveland around the time that Cleveland businesspeople were donating art to the museum when it opened in 1916. Naturally, the most important donation was some Goryeo-era celadon pottery donated by the Severance family. The 200 pieces of Korean art donated by John Severance (the son of Louis Severance, who supported the establishment of Korea’s first Western hospital) enabled the Cleveland Museum of Art to acquire a high-quality collection. I believe that cultural exchange between Korea and Cleveland, which already has 100 years of history as outlined above, will be spurred on by the opening of the Korean gallery. Last of all, I want to express my sincere gratitude to David Franklin, director of the museum, along with everyone else who worked so hard to bring about the opening of the Korean gallery.