Exhibition dates: July 3, 2004 - January 9, 2005
Exhibition location: Arts of Korea Gallery, 2nd floor
An exhibition of 36 Korean paintings, ceramics, and sculpture from the collection of Mary Griggs Burke will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning July 3. Many of these pieces – which date primarily to the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) – will make their public debut in this exhibition. Mrs. Burke, renowned for her collection of Japanese art, has since the late 1970s also assembled a small but splendid selection of Korean art. This exhibition, Hidden Jewels: Korean Art from the Mary Griggs Burke Collection, provides a rare opportunity to glimpse a lesser-known side of her collection and to learn more about the diversity and beauty of Korean art.
Among the masterpieces in the exhibition is an ink painting of bamboo by Yi ChO¢ng (1541-1622). Yi was a premier literati artist of his time and a descendant of Choson's "renaissance king," Sejong (r. 1418-50), whose reign is credited with important cultural developments, including the invention of the Korean alphabet, hangul. Another of the extraordinary works on view is a painting on silk called Shakyamuni Buddha Triad (1565), one of a handful surviving from an original set of 400 scrolls. Sponsored by a member of the royal family, this Buddhist painting exemplifies the importance of the religion to the rulers of the early Choson dynasty, despite the official state policy of promoting Confucianism and suppressing Buddhism.
Also highlighted will be a handsome gilt wood sculpture of a Seated Bodhisattva from the mid-Choson period and 19th-century blue-and-white porcelains, whose modern and vibrant painted images capture the spirit of late ChosO¢n art. Examples of the celebrated green-glazed celadon ware of the Koryo dynasty (918-1392) and a 19th-century eight-fold screen Lotus Flowers and Birds will also be on view.
Simultaneously on view in the Arts of Japan Galleries are 18 new works from Mary Burke's superb collection – including Japanese sculpture, paintings, screens, lacquerware, and ceramics dating from the 13th to the 19th century – as well as 25 contemporary Japanese ceremics.
Hidden Jewels: Korean Art from the Mary Griggs Burke Collection is organized by Soyoung Lee, Assistant Curator of the Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exhibition design is by Michael Langley, Exhibition Designer, with graphic design by Sue Koch, Senior Graphic Designer, and lighting by Clint Ross Coller and Richard Lichte, Lighting Designers, all of the Museum's Design Department.
The exhibition will be featured on the Museum's Web site (www.metmuseum.org).
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