US Ambassador from S. Korea at WAFC and Cultivating more knowledge of Korean Art
At a World Affairs Council gathering in San Francisco, in listening to the remarks of the Ambassador of South Korea to the US, on August 21, Ahn Ho-young, could not be more positive about South Korea's relationship with the USA, and their shared congruency in perceptions. He stated only that S Korea" must be prepared" for any actions by North Korea in the future. As a graduate of Georgetown University, he endeared the audience by reminding them he had spoken to the about a decade ago as Secretary, when that ambassador had not been able to meet with them, and that he was delighted to return to San Francisco. He was ambassador to the kingdom of BELGIUM and served as ambassador in the Korean Mission to the EU. His background is in the financial sector: leader of Korean delegations to OECD, and WTO. His ministry posts in Korea have included Director General of Multilaterial trade bureau and Deputy Minister for Trade. The event was co sponsored by the Asia Society.
I have enrolled in a Korean and Early Japanese Art lecture series at the Asian Art Museum ; what has been most interesting is the discovery of the "Pensive Bodhisattva, Maitreya Buddah, the Buddah of the Future. " which the lecturer feels epitomoizes Korean character. AAM will have an exhibition of Joseon art in late fall, starting October 25, as will the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. I am preparing, now, for a more cultivated perception of the art. Hyonjeong Kim Han, on August 23, who curates the AAM Korean collection, was the first lecturer. She was responsible for the installation of the Korean galleries in the Asian wing of LACMA, which I visited, in December 2012 . After her lecture, I revisited the galleries here.
The second lecture focused on The Three Kingdoms of Korea, and was provided by Minku Kim, who currently teaches at the University of Minnesota -Twin Cities. He stressed archaeological finds and monuments. One of the points he made was that stone pagodas are one of Korea's unique contributions to Buddhist architecture in contrast to the brick pagodas of China and the wooden pagodas of Japan. I am reading Jane Portal's survey text on Korean Art and Archaeology, whom I met in Shanghai, when she gave our inaugural lecture for the Royal Asiatic Society; she had been instrumental for a decade in organizing shows with the Shanghai art museum, such as ones from the British Museum. Jane is now, however, at the Boston Fine Arts Museum in America. I spent a couple of hours in the library reading two find articles on the "Pensive Buddah", which fascinates me. It pre-dates Rodin's "The Thinker" and comes out of India, of course, through China but manifests distinctly in a Maitreya(Buddah of the Future) variant, exclusive to Korea, as the others are Sakuyumuni or Avaloshikavara. All flank the Buddah, as Boddhisatvas, or those who are participating in Buddah nature, but show compassion and instruction to sentient beings.
My exploration included an illuminating insightful lecture in the Fall Colloquia at the Center for Korean Studies, at UCB, by academic, Joan Kee, from Univ of Michigan at IEAS, UC Berkeley. She provided insight into artists of the 1970s who had their own Modernism.Post Structuralism paintings in Korea. These artists include Keon Young Woo, Park Seobo, Yun Hyongkeun, and Dong You, as well as Lee Ufan. To present the world was to reshape their own. They let "things speak" in the Dada sense...At stake was now : what but how? Her lecture was entitled: 'Tansaekhwha and the case for abstraction in postwar Korea. " Art as phenomenon. Repitition is a form of marking, a reminder of solidity, an insistence on materialit, of the present in the presence, not about an event or an idea. Minimalist in being about materials and making. Really refreshing as these artists show the restraint and discipline of the Asian medium, but also employ the "new methodology" in their own means, with their own history. They apparently were more confident, earlier in doing this than their Chinese counterparts>>??? While waiting for the lecture, I viewed the ongoing exhibition of "Weaving" which is about a Japanese woman, who when her husband retired brought her a loom, and then she went to school to learn weaving, and these are her examples, with many various dyes...she created herself, and materials out of shredded paper and silk!
I have enrolled in a Korean and Early Japanese Art lecture series at the Asian Art Museum ; what has been most interesting is the discovery of the "Pensive Bodhisattva, Maitreya Buddah, the Buddah of the Future. " which the lecturer feels epitomoizes Korean character. AAM will have an exhibition of Joseon art in late fall, starting October 25, as will the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. I am preparing, now, for a more cultivated perception of the art. Hyonjeong Kim Han, on August 23, who curates the AAM Korean collection, was the first lecturer. She was responsible for the installation of the Korean galleries in the Asian wing of LACMA, which I visited, in December 2012 . After her lecture, I revisited the galleries here.
The second lecture focused on The Three Kingdoms of Korea, and was provided by Minku Kim, who currently teaches at the University of Minnesota -Twin Cities. He stressed archaeological finds and monuments. One of the points he made was that stone pagodas are one of Korea's unique contributions to Buddhist architecture in contrast to the brick pagodas of China and the wooden pagodas of Japan. I am reading Jane Portal's survey text on Korean Art and Archaeology, whom I met in Shanghai, when she gave our inaugural lecture for the Royal Asiatic Society; she had been instrumental for a decade in organizing shows with the Shanghai art museum, such as ones from the British Museum. Jane is now, however, at the Boston Fine Arts Museum in America. I spent a couple of hours in the library reading two find articles on the "Pensive Buddah", which fascinates me. It pre-dates Rodin's "The Thinker" and comes out of India, of course, through China but manifests distinctly in a Maitreya(Buddah of the Future) variant, exclusive to Korea, as the others are Sakuyumuni or Avaloshikavara. All flank the Buddah, as Boddhisatvas, or those who are participating in Buddah nature, but show compassion and instruction to sentient beings.
My exploration included an illuminating insightful lecture in the Fall Colloquia at the Center for Korean Studies, at UCB, by academic, Joan Kee, from Univ of Michigan at IEAS, UC Berkeley. She provided insight into artists of the 1970s who had their own Modernism.Post Structuralism paintings in Korea. These artists include Keon Young Woo, Park Seobo, Yun Hyongkeun, and Dong You, as well as Lee Ufan. To present the world was to reshape their own. They let "things speak" in the Dada sense...At stake was now : what but how? Her lecture was entitled: 'Tansaekhwha and the case for abstraction in postwar Korea. " Art as phenomenon. Repitition is a form of marking, a reminder of solidity, an insistence on materialit, of the present in the presence, not about an event or an idea. Minimalist in being about materials and making. Really refreshing as these artists show the restraint and discipline of the Asian medium, but also employ the "new methodology" in their own means, with their own history. They apparently were more confident, earlier in doing this than their Chinese counterparts>>??? While waiting for the lecture, I viewed the ongoing exhibition of "Weaving" which is about a Japanese woman, who when her husband retired brought her a loom, and then she went to school to learn weaving, and these are her examples, with many various dyes...she created herself, and materials out of shredded paper and silk!
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