The Arts of Korea Gallery

     The Metropolitan Museum’s collection of Korean works of art is among the finest outside Asia, reflecting not only the Korean art tradition but also its reception and appreciation in the West. Due to the vicissitudes of history, extant examples of Korean art of outstanding quality are rare, a situation that has resulted in Western scholars’ relative lack of emphasis on, and therefore knowledge of, the Korean art tradition in comparison to that of other East Asian countries. 

William H. Luers, President of the Metropolitan Museum, stated: "This new permanent gallery has been the dream of many of us here at the Museum for a number of years.  Its inauguration symbolizes an important commitment to the study and presentation of the artistic heritage of Korea as well as the completion of our grand Asian museum within the Museum, a project that has seen, over the last few decades, the creation of major new gallery areas for the cultures of Asia." 

     Philippe de Montebello, the Museum’s director, noted:  "Here, for the first time in the United States and perhaps anywhere outside Korea, the stunning artistic achievements of Korea find significant representation.  Of all the East Asian cultural and artistic traditions, those of the Korean peninsula have received the least attention in the West.  The Arts of Korea Gallery puts on view superb Korean works of art, many of which have not been displayed before because of limited space, that will raise awareness of the unique artistic achievement of Korea." 

                              Among the rarest pieces in the Museum’s collection are those of the court tradition of the Koryo, dynasty (918-1392).  Works in celadon reached the height of achievement in technology, form, and decoration during this period and were admired widely outside the peninsula, both in East Asia at the time they were produced and, more recently, in Europe and the United States. 

     The Metropolitan’s collection also includes remarkable examples of Korean Buddhist art that are evidence of Korea’s significant role in East Asia’s Buddhist artistic tradition. Buddhist paintings from the Koryo and Choson (1392-1910) dynasties in particular cast light on an area that has yet to be studied thoroughly by Western scholars.  The Museum’s painting of a Buddha and a single bodhisattva together in a hanging scroll, Amitabha and Kshitigarbha (Chijang), is the only known surviving example of such an image in Koryo Pure Land Buddhist iconography.  A superb early-14th-century painting of the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara follows one of the most commonly used iconographic conventions for portraying this popular Buddhist deity.  Attired in beautiful robes and sashes, he is shown seated on a rocky outcropping, with an entourage of officials offering precious gifts.  The extraordinary delicacy of the pictorial details, many of which are executed in brilliant gold pigment, and the relatively pristine state of preservation make this work one of the most important extant examples of the preeminent Koryo tradition of devotional painting. 

     Another strength of the Museum’s collection is a group of landscape paintings produced in the early Choson dynasty, when the landscape painting tradition that flourished in the Koryo period developed in new directions.  Reflecting the importance of An Kyon (act. ca. 1440-70), the most popular and influential court painter of his day, these paintings provide crucial evidence of the Korean landscape painting tradition during a pivotal period of its development, from which very few examples survive.