The museum’s Korean art collection consists of works ranging from stone sculptures to a small selection of paintings, furniture, chests, boxes, bronze mirrors, and other examples of decorative art. The majority, however, are ceramics. Of these ceramics, we are fortunate to have a rich variety of stoneware from the early Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE-935 CE), celadon wares from the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392), and porcelains from the Joseon dynasty (1392-1897).

While Korea’s ceramic tradition dates back 7000 years, it was not until 1958 that ceramics became one of the first arts acknowledged as an independent discipline in Korean universities. Since then, Korean ceramic artists have developed an even broader range of techniques and forms in their work. They have traveled extensively and exhibited their works internationally, while simultaneously preserving and expanding upon some elements of Korea’s historical ceramic traditions.

This exhibition pairs outstanding examples of contemporary Korean ceramics with historical Korean ceramics from the museum’s permanent collection to highlight the material, aesthetic, stylistic, and technical developments of Korean ceramics throughout history. The breadth of the collection allows for direct comparison of these aesthetic transformations across time.

Earthy Splendor: Korean Ceramics from the Collection will be on view starting January 20, 2018, at 1:00 pm in Gallery I.