Korean artifacts get makeover before heading to U.S. for display

Korean Heritage

Published: 06 Jun. 2022, 12:11 Updated: 07 Jun. 2022, 16:12

Korean artifacts get makeover before heading to U.S. for display

“The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi” is a late-Joseon painting of Guo Ziyi (697-781), a wealthy Tang Dynasty general who lived to an advanced age. The painting depicts Guo enjoying a lavish party in his later years with his family at his luxurious home. The painting came back to Korea for a year-long conservation work. The above is before the conservation process and below is after. [OVERSEAS KOREAN CULTURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION]

Korean artifacts have been given new life, though not in its motherland, but in the United States.

One is the 19th-century, eight-panel folding screen called “The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi,” a painting owned by the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting flew back to its home country last August to undergo a conservation project that took nearly a year by Jung Jae Conservation Center, funded by the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation. According to the foundation, an American lawyer who used to work in China purchased the painting, and it was donated by his family when he passed away in 1940.

On May 30, the foundation revealed the final outcome of the painting to the local press before flying it back to Chicago. The painting will be exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago from July 2 to Sept. 25.

“In the process of researching the collection of Korean art works, this painting caught my eye,” said Chee Yeon-soo, curator of Korean Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. Chee said she was researching the Korean collection in the museum after starting her work there recently. She used to work for the National Palace Museum of Korea. “It was not in good condition as it had never undergone preservation works.”

“The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi” is a late-Joseon painting of Guo Ziyi (697-781), a wealthy Tang Dynasty general who lived to an advanced age. The painting depicts Guo enjoying a lavish party in his later years with his family at his luxurious home. Guo was known for achieving all that was regarded as success, namely, a successful career as a government official, longevity and even his children’s prosperity. This painting was especially popular in the late Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), and was produced in large quantities for members of the royal family and the upper class scholars as they desired to have such a “successful life” as Guo — one of both material and non-material prosperity — by owning one of the copies.

According to the foundation, there are about 47 paintings of “The Joyous Banquet of Guo Ziyi” remaining today. The one in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection is regarded to be in “fairly good condition,” according to the foundation, “best as of today, since the conservation work.”

“Of all surviving versions, this one is characterized by calligraphy that is consistent and outstanding in terms of its quality and relatively pristine colors,” said Kwang Dong-gu, an official from the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation. “The painting’s overall composition, arrangement of the subject matter, pigment colors, techniques used to depict the people and use of multiple decorative elements all indicate a level of quality that is on par with that of a royal painting.”

“List of Men in Jeungsan-hyeon in the Year of Gapja (1864),” a military service census of adult male residents of Jeongsan-hyeon, located in Pyeongannam Province in 1864, was found during the conservation work of the painting. It was used as the painting's backing paper. [OVERSEAS KOREAN CULTURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION]

The foundation said that pieces of administrative documents from the late 19th century were found during the conservation work. They were used as the painting’s backing paper. One of these documents, entitled “List of Men in Jeungsan-hyeon in the Year of Gapja (1864),” is a military service census of adult male residents of Jeongsan-hyeon, located in Pyeongannam Province, in 1864. This census was an official provincial record and includes many details such as names, ages, years of birth, wages and so on.

“The discovery of this document is important as the date of one of them clearly rules out the possibility of the painting having been produced before 1867,” said Kwak from the foundation.

At the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, Korea’s traditional roof tile ornament known as chimi, has come under the spotlight. The exhibit has been co-organized with the National Museum of Korea. [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA]

At the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, Korea’s traditional roof tile ornament known as chimi has come under the spotlight. Titled “Once Upon a Roof: Vanished Korean Architecture,” the exhibit has been co-organized with the National Museum of Korea. The state-run museum said it’s in fact the first time for most of the roof tiles to leave the country to be exhibited overseas.

The exhibit includes three important chimi that have been excavated from different sites in Korea's Baekje Kingdom (17 B.C. to A.D. 660) and the Unified Silla Period (668-935). [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA]

One of three important chimi displayed in the exhibit from Busosanseong Fortress in Buyeo, dating back to the Baekje Kingdom (17 B.C. to A.D. 660). [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA]

Chimi crowned both ends of the main roof ridge of prominent buildings. They not only protected the wooden structures of the building from the weather, but were also used as embellishments to ward off evil spirits. Roof tiles made of fired clay were key elements of traditional Korean architecture. These tiles have survived more than one thousand years. The exhibit sheds light on three important chimi -- one excavated from the site of the Mireuk Temple in the North Jeolla city, the largest Buddhist sanctuary of the Baekje Kingdom (17 B.C. to A.D. 660), as well as one from Baekje’s Busosanseong Fortress in Buyeo and another one from the Unified Silla Period’s (668-935) Wolji site.

“It will be a rare experience for American visitors to the museum to witness Korea’s ancient architectural culture,” said Yang Su-mi, a curator of the exhibit from the National Museum of Korea. “Although it focuses on one special type of ornamented roof tile called chimi, visitors will be able to understand Korea’s architecture materials, techniques and philosophy through the exhibit.”

The poster of the exhibit on chimi, titled “Once Upon a Roof: Vanished Korean Architecture" [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA]

The exhibit runs until Oct. 30. On July 26, an online symposium will be organized, titled “Ancient Korean Architecture in Context.” Researchers from the National Museum of Korea and American researchers will talk about Korea’s ancient architecture and kiwa (traditional roof tiles) from Three Kingdoms Period (57 B.C. to A.D. 668) and the Unified Silla.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]