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--></style><title>Re: [KS] cultural object circulation in the late
Choson D</title></head><body>
<div>Post Scriptum:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>We might as well put a date on the reappearance in the interest
in Koryô celadon in Korea: the year 1908.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>But let me first make this claim: neither in China nor in Korea
would anyone before the early nineteen hundreds have had any interest
in Koryô ware. By then China and Korea had discovered blue-whites
(and Europe had), and after that they were able to even produce fine
glazed wares in more than two colors, e.g. with red and blue and
yellowish-brownish tones. Why would anyone would want to go back to
those archaic greenish wares once they could enjoy all those
colors?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Much of the answer, I think, lies in the West--in European
aesthetics and tastes. This is not exactly part of an elementary
intro, so allow me to bridge this a little with some bold
examples:</div>
<div>When seeing in person the Before-and-After of the mid-1980s
Sistine Chapel restoration that turned Michelangelo's gracefully stale
and serious yet already exciting frescoes into a Walt Disney-esque
version with bright and flashy colors that even the Las Vegas remake
can't surpass, I was totally stunned.</div>
<div> <img
src="cid:p06240601c8cb2eb82f89@[192.168.1.65].1.0"></div>
<div>Colors MORE impressive here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sistine_Chapel_ceiling_left.png</div
>
<div><br></div>
<div>Stunned, because it had shattered my (and that of most others in
my and earlier generations) concept of pretty much everything that was
out there in terms of "classical" aesthetics. A couple of
years later I had to digest the fact that the old Greeks had actually
also imitated Walt Disney. Neither temple facades nor vases had been
plain marmor and/or whitish: new chemical analysis and new
reconstructions show that Walt had been the mastermind behind it
all.</div>
<div><img src="cid:p06240601c8cb2eb82f89@[192.168.1.65].1.1"></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>In short: From some time after the Lutheran reformation and until
very recently, that is during the centuries of the Protestant drive
for industrialization and modernization (in the interpretation of Max
Weber's<i> The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism</i>, and
also, of course, in the spirit of Immanuel Wallerstein's Modern
World-System analysis, Europeans have equated the monochrome and
monotone, the life-less, with the classics, our admirable classics.
The images to be published in your<i> Ilias</i> edition would not have
looked like Mickey Mouse or The Pink Panther--they might have been b/w
lithographs or later b/w photos of some color-less Greek statues or
reliefs.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>While 18th and 19th century Europe was so deeply in love with its
own monochrome/monotone construction (rather than re-construction) of
classical Greece and Rome, it sure also enjoyed the blue-white
Chinawares and even the multi-colored wares. So far for the
"exotic" Other. Yet, who would not also look for the
"classics" within the "exotic" East. The
"classics" would need to be, OF COURSE, monochrome and
monotone! It could hardly be Walt-Disney-esque, not according to Max
Weber, they would not been classics then, not in the pre-21st century
understanding of classics. (We Northern Europeans still think so
today, in spite of knowing better. Ask me.) Something like Koryô
celadon or later Chosôn period white wares would fit the aesthetic
bill.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Now you might say it's not the Europeans, it's the Japanese.
Right, yes. It certainly gets somewhat complicated here, as many
different factors come into play--such as the fact that the Japanese
did have a long-standing aesthetic preference (or at least strong
appreciation) for monochrome objects (of course not limited to
monochrome, but certainly a high acceptance). While this is correct,
the Japanese established in their Western-inspired modernization
process institutions that were molded largely by the concepts of
European institutions. From uniforms to art and crafts exhibitions,
industrial exhibitions, museums, collecting and collections, etc., all
and everything followed within this modernization process. As you are
also aware of, we see parallel to this some back-to-the-roots
movement, the urge to strengthen Japanese traditions and
aesthetics--that already starts with Okakura Tenshin who reinvented
Japan's own traditions and even brought<i> Nihonga</i> to places as
far away as India, and it ends with the Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere in the 1940s. In very many cases, without wanting
to simplify this too much, we see in this process a replacement of
certain objects of desire by other objects of desire (as collector's
items) within the same or a very similar institutional (originally
European) framework. The very interesting point here is, that, while
the objects are replaced, many of the formal and aesthetic attributes
do not get replaced. Koryô celadons are a great example of exactly
this; they have all the attributes a European collector wanted to see:
classic antiquity, monochrome color, rareness, done in lost technique,
symbolizing a lost high culture.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>From the Korean point of view: Koryô wares start to become of
interest again when the modernization process seriously begins in
Korea. Before the early 1880s the term "misul" (art) does
not exist in Korea, and it is not really being used much until the
1900s. After that we have "arts and crafts" and we have
crafts exhibitions, as crafts are an important part of the Western
modernization process:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>1893: Columbian Exposition in Chicago (with Korean
participation)</div>
<div>1900: Exposition Universelle in Paris (with Korean
participation)</div>
<div>1907: National (Korean) Fair in Hansông (Seoul)</div>
<div>1907: National Inheritance School for the Industry established in
Hansông (Seoul)</div>
<div>1908: Hansông Fine Arts Factory established by the royal
government to substitute</div>
<div> for the Punwôn which had
heretofore been in charge of producing crafts for</div>
<div> the royal family and the palace,
thus replacing the traditional crafts</div>
<div> production with a modern
manufactory that would produce modern designed</div>
<div> items (the royal Toan-sil, Dept.
of Design, was now actually located inside</div>
<div> that factory).</div>
<div>1909: construction of the Yi Royal Museum (Yi Wang-ga Museum) in
Hansông (Seoul)</div>
<div>1912: opening of the Yi Royal Museum</div>
<div>... and so on</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Please note that at the time (same as in Europe and the U.S.)
"arts" and "crafts" went usually hand in hand, and
so we do not only talk about the EXHIBITION of existing art work, or
whatever we consider art, but also about the PRODUCTION of arts and
crafts, and the exhibition of methods showing how arts and crafts are
being produced. (This was before the invention of terms like
outsourcing.)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>In this connection we see that the production of porcelain and
other wares becomes profitable again, and in 1907 and 1908 we see one
American and several Japanese manufacturies and kilns opening
production around Korea--some of the Japanese brand names are still
known today in this industry ... and yes, it was an "industry"
now, an industrial production. Also in 1908 in P'yôngyang a
porcelain manufactury gets opened by some Korean entrepreneurs, the
P'yôngyang Chagi Chejojusik Hoesa gets established there (note the
"-jusik" part). Wall Street comes to P'yôngyang. That
company produced all kind of wares, mostly for the Japanese market,
and remakes of antique celadons are also part of their program (not
really sure about Koryô porcelains at this time though, before
1910).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div> <img
src="cid:p06240601c8cb2eb82f89@[192.168.1.65].1.2"></div>
<div> Kyôngsang Pangnamhoejang, 1907 (entrance)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div> <img
src="cid:p06240601c8cb2eb82f89@[192.168.1.65].1.3"></div>
<div> Yi Royal Museum, 1912</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Sorry to be so lengthy & bold,</div>
<div>Frank</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>--------------------------------------<br>
Frank Hoffmann<br>
http://koreaweb.ws</div>
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