Kansong Art Museum's Daegu branch touts year-round viewing of national treasures

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Kansong Art Museum's Daegu branch touts year-round viewing of national treasures

Published: 29 Aug. 2024, 14:31 Updated: 29 Aug. 2024, 17:09

SHIN MIN-HEE
shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

The Kansong Art Museum Daegu opens Sept. 3. [KANSONG ART MUSEUM DAEGU]

DAEGU — The Kansong Art Museum in Seongbuk District, northern Seoul, is normally the place to check out many of Korea’s priceless national treasures. The only problem is that it is closed for most of the year.

Except for a few weeks in the spring and fall, the museum — also called Bohwagak — is kept concealed from the public due to its focus on researching and preserving cultural assets.

This is why the Kansong Art and Culture Foundation has found another home in Daegu. On Sept. 3, the Kansong Art Museum Daegu will open its doors as the foundation’s first exhibition venue to be open all year round.

Plans for a Daegu branch began on July 1, 2015, through a contract between the Daegu Metropolitan Government and the Kansong Art and Culture Foundation. Construction finished in the first half of the year.

Kansong’s Daegu museum is classified as a municipal museum, as it was built with financing from the Daegu government. Though its operation will continue to be contracted out to the Kansong foundation, it is entirely owned by Daegu city. All profits earned by the museum, like ticket sales, will belong to Daegu.

″Listening to the Nightingale While on Horseback″ (c. late 18th-early 19th century) by Kim Hong-do [KANSONG ART MUSEUM DAEGU]

The building's design was helmed by Choi Moon-gyu, an architectural engineering professor at Yonsei University, who aimed to make the museum harmonize with the flow of its natural surroundings while minimizing any alterations to the environment.

He likened the building to a plain bowl, which prioritizes fulfilling its purpose of containing things. “Making sure the museum blends well with nature was important, rather than making it stand out,” he said during a press conference on Tuesday.

On display at the Daegu branch’s inaugural exhibition are 40 items, a total of 97 pieces, that have been designated as national treasures. They were bought by Chun Hyung-pil (1906-1962), art collector and founder of Bohwagak. Kansong was his pen name. The foundation currently owns some 4,600 traditional items, including paintings, calligraphy, literature and ceramics, according to Kansong’s director Chun In-keon, grandson of the founder.

The exhibition’s title reads “Yeosedongbo” in Korean, quoted from an inscription on a cornerstone at Bohwagak. Kansong translates the phrase in English as “may precious cultural heritage be shared and cherished by all generations to come.”

The “Haerye” edition of “Hunminjeongeum” (1446) by King Sejong [KANSONG ART MUSEUM DAEGU]

″Celadon Maebyeong (Prunus Vase) with Inlaid Cloud and Crane Design″ from the 13th century [KANSONG ART MUSEUM DAEGU]

The expression refers to the Daegu branch’s mission to be more easily accessible to the public than its main branch. It’s also the first time in Kansong’s 86-year history that it has been able to exhibit this many of its treasures at once, thanks to the new and expansive two-story building with a basement, as opposed to Bohwagak, which is much smaller.

Deputy director Baik In-san compared the inaugural exhibition to “the opening ceremony at the Olympics, where the athletes — or the items in our collection — are introduced one by one.”

The exhibition is divided into five major sections that each come with a theme. It starts out by exploring landscape paintings, portraits and genre paintings from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), featuring the works of renowned artists like Kim Hong-do (1745-1806), Jeong Seon (1676-1759) and Sim Sa-jeong (1707-1769). Another section is dedicated to calligraphy, ceramics and Buddhist art from the Joseon era.

While these sections arrange the pieces similarly in size and quantity, just like any other exhibition, some other portions of the exhibition highlight selected individual pieces. The famous “Portrait of a Beauty,” or “Miindo,” by Sin Yun-bok (1758-1813), is displayed inside a small dark room only allowing a few people inside at the same time to intimately appreciate the painting.

“Portrait of a Beauty,” or “Miindo,” by Sin Yun-bok, is displayed inside a small dark room only allowing a couple people inside at the same time to “intimately” appreciate the famous painting from the late 18th to early 19th century. [KANSONG ART MUSEUM DAEGU]

The “Haerye” edition of “Hunminjeongeum” (the 1446 book about how hangul was created), has been unveiled after rare appearances only at the Kansong Art Museum, National Museum of Korea and National Hangeul Museum since it was purchased by founder Chun in 1940.

The star of Kansong Art Museum Daegu is arguably its Open Conservation Studio, which shows the live-action process of experts fixing damaged artifacts and artworks in a laboratory-like space. Visitors are allowed to ask questions to the staff, who are shown through a glass window, by using the microphone on site between 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. from Tuesdays to Sundays.

Experts fix damaged artifacts and artworks in the Kansong Art Museum Daegu's Open Conservation Studio on Tuesday. Visitors are allowed to interact with the conservators via the microphone on set. [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Now that Kansong has more space to maximize the creative potential of its collection, the museum will actively curate special thematic exhibitions. Deputy director Baik especially teased that collaborations with other national or public museums, like the Leeum Museum of Art and Horim Museum, are in store for future exhibitions.

Kansong Art Museum Daegu’s inaugural exhibition continues until Dec. 1. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. until October, and then 6 p.m. until March. Tickets are 10,000 won ($7.50) for adults.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]