[KS] KSR 1999-13:_Azaleas and Golden Bells: Korean Art in the

[Stephen Epstein]

_Azaleas and Golden Bells:  Korean Art in the Collection of the Portland
Art Museum and in Portland Private Collections_, by Junghee Lee.  Portland:
The Portland Art Museum, 1998.  85pp, 50 b/w and color prints.  (ISBN
1-883124-08-5).

Reviewed by Michael Reinschmidt
Academia Koreana

[This review first appeared in _Acta Koreana_, 2 (1999): 167-69.  _Acta
Koreana_ is published by Academia Koreana of Keimyung University.]


       During the past couple of decades, interest in traditional Korean
art has been steadily increasing in the West.  Prior to that, however,
Korean artifacts in museums were often absorbed into general East Asian
collections, whose mass of contents usually was weighted towards items of
Japanese or Chinese provenance.  In particular, publications making the
Korean portion of such collections known to a wider audience have been
small in number.  The present catalogue, a favorable indicator of the end
of this era, was made possible through a combined effort initiated by the
Portland Art Museum of Portland, Oregon (PAM), at dedicating a new gallery
devoted entirely to its growing Korean holdings.  The gallery opened in May
1997 and ever since then, its Korean collection has been expanding through
support from collectors, from Portland's Korean community, and from the
Korea Foundation.  Gaps still existing in the collection have since been
filled through meaningful loan decisions.  This proactive approach combined
with quality publications such as the present catalogue will probably
quickly enhance the status of the entire Korean program at PAM.

       With much sensitivity for the needs of Western museum-goers, curator
Junghee Lee has delineated a thorough but still readable summary of Korean
art history (pp. 8-19).  The introductory chapter covers the main periods
of the development of Korean art.  The author then points out the
uniqueness of Korean styles and their special development in between the
power centers of China, Japan, and Mongolia.

       Lee carefully distinguishes between styles and inventions uniquely
Korean and those non-Korean, traces Chinese influences and indicates
transmission of elements on to Japan (pp. 10, 12, 14).  For example, the
reader unfamiliar with Korean art learns about three main inventions of
Kory™ potters which set new standards in ceramic production:  (1) the
creation of the famous bluish-green kingfisher color (e.g., twelfth century
prunus vase, fig. 4), so unobtrusive and yet so effective on Korean
celadon; (2) the technique of producing meticulously inlaid designs on
celadon-glazed porcelain (e.g., the set of twelfth-century porcelain
cosmetic boxes, fig. 7); and (3) the brilliant technique of creating
underglaze red by means of copper oxidization.

       In unusual detail and far beyond simple listings of object
measurements, each item is minutely described, one of the strongest points
of this catalogue and a point which many other publications lack.  With
such detail, this book is obviously addressed to the serious student of art
rather than the casual museum visitor.  The text is well written and each
object has been painstakingly researched.  Thus the catalogue should prove
a rich source of information for art and museum professionals, as well as
for collectors and aestheticians.

       The inclusion of Korean Buddhist artifacts serves to contrast the
difference between indigenous artistic elements and the lingering South
Asian influence (figs. 11, 12, 20, 23a and b, 24, 39, 40, 43, 45, 46a and
b).  The establishment of Buddhism during the Silla (676-935) and Koryo
(918-1392) periods inserted new impulses into the Korean realm of aesthetic
perception.  The new ideas seem to have accelerated the artistic blending
and reinventing of old and new in Korea.  Lee exemplifies the subject by
pointing out that, "religious statues seem to depict idealized Koreans,
breathing and moving as if alive, whether they are in bas-relief sculptures
or sculptures of the Buddha fully in the round" (p. 11).

       The social dominance of the luxury-loving royalty throughout most
periods of Korean history is reflected in ceramics dating back to as early
as the Kory™ era.  Up to about the eighteenth century, as Lee points out
regarding the object in figure 30 depicting two dragons, "jars emblazoned
with dragons were the king's royal ware:  no commoner could use pottery
ornamented with dragons.  In the nineteenth century, however, these jars
became popular, and the aristocracy and wealthy patrons began using them."
(p. 54)

       As outstanding and particularly valuable or intriguing objects from
the collection depicted in the catalogue, I would like to mention several
items:  fig. 1, a globular food storage jar (t'ogi hangari) with natural
ash glaze, fourth century Silla; fig 22, a porcelain wine (or white) bottle
from a famous royal kiln in Kwangju, depicting the plum (paekcha maehwa
chungmun py™ng) with underglaze cobalt floral decorations, ca. 1730-1850;
fig. 27, a nineteenth century ten-panel screen displaying episodes from a
Nine-Cloud Dream (Kuunmong), illustrating a beautiful story of a Buddhist
monk who is reborn into a marriage with eight women, but still prefers to
search for truth and enlightenment as a sincere monk; fig. 28, a screen of
the eight Confucian virtues (munja-do), early nineteenth century, ink and
color on paper; fig. 30, the dragon (or white) jar  (paekcha yongmunho)
mentioned above; and fig. 39, Solitary Monk (toksžng).

       If the fifty depictions in the catalogue are an adequate
representation of the entire collection, then this collection should, with
steady growth, become a richly diverse resource for the Korean heritage in
the Pacific Northwest.  In terms of the gallery's design, however, it is
regrettable that no innovative alternative was deemed appropriate to
balance the overly popular theme of upper class life-style depictions.
Displays of yangban upper class living arrangements such as the sarangbang
noblemen's quarters; houses with ondol central heating, and court estates
probably reverberating with ch™ngak classical Korean music, are the sole
theme of museums around the world that maintain permanent exhibits on
Korea.  Certainly a question of representation, I think it is high time to
start thinking also about portrayals of every-day Korean life, apart from
the yangban class, which would represent the vast majority of the Korean
people of the nineteenth century.  However, since art all over the world
has largely been dominated by the tastes and affluence of the rich, we have
to accept these manifestations of art for what they are -- a powerful
reflection of the context of their origin.

       A serious shortcoming of the catalogue is the complete disconnection
of the book's title from its contents.  Lee mentions the new permanent
exhibit at PAM; however, it remains unclear whether the book's title,
_Azaleas and Golden Bells_, is also the title of the exhibit.  There is no
explanation for this oddity, and one expects to find its resolution in the
introduction. There, instead of putting the flower title in perspective,
Lee talks about the sarangbang-room and the ondol-heating system.  In the
following paragraph, entitled "Korean Aesthetics," the two flowers, the
azalea and golden bell or forsythia as it is also known, are nominally
mentioned, for the first and last time, as blooming everywhere along the
roadside.  That's it.  No further explanation of the connection between
title and contents is given.  If the catalogue was meant to be a general,
themeless introduction to PAM's Korean collection, then this fact should
have been pointed out so that the reader or visitor will not expect a
thematic treatment of the art on display.  Probably most people will not
notice the discrepancy, but it diminishes an otherwise commendable piece of
work.

       By and large, I have enjoyed reading the catalogue and studying the
illustrations.  The book will assume a steady spot among my reference works
on Korean culture.  I have been intrigued to learn more about the Korean
collection at PAM, and I can't wait to see the exhibit in full the next
time I am in Portland.


Citation:
Reinschmidt, Michael  1999
Review of Junghee Lee, _Azaleas and Golden Bells:  Korean Art in the
Collection of the Portland Art
Museum and in Portland Private Collections_ (1998)
Korean Studies Review 1999, no. 13
Electronic file:
http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/korean-studies/files/ksr99-13.htm
[This review first appeared in _Acta Koreana_, 2 (1999): 167-69]


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