Page 8 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

Directors’ Foreword

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, are pleased to present
this volume to accompany the exhibition “Poetry in Clay: Korean Buncheong Ceramics from Leeum,
Samsung Museum of Art,” the first exhibition outside of Asia dedicated to this fascinating genre of
pottery. This exhibition introduces some sixty of the best examples of buncheong ware from the
renowned collection of Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, the most works from Leeum ever
displayed in the United States. It is a project that follows upon the success of the Metropolitan
Museum’s 2009 exhibition “Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400–1600,” which featured buncheong
ceramics and from which this show extends.
Korean ceramics have held a special appeal for Western collectors and audiences since the
late nineteenth century. Though Goryeo celadon and Joseon porcelain may be more familiar to
many of us, buncheong, which flourished during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is perhaps
the most quintessentially Korean ceramic art, its dynamic aesthetic holding near-universal appeal
for today’s art lovers. The exhibition also brings together a selection of the Metropolitan Museum’s
Edo-period Japanese ceramics inspired by buncheong’s white -slip decoration, many never before
shown. This is the first exhibition to showcase both the Korean prototypes and later Japanese
revivals in order to highlight the expressive resonances of buncheong idioms beyond their original
place and time of production. Also included are works by modern and contemporary Korean and
Japanese potters, eloquent examples of how this tradition is reinterpreted by today’s artists.
This exhibition was organized by the Metropolitan’s Soyoung Lee, Associate Curator, Depart-
ment of Asian Art, and Jeon Seung-chang, Chief Curator, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. The
curators are also responsible for this publication. Hyonjeong Kim Han, Curator of Korean Art, Asian
Art Museum, coordinated the presentation of the exhibition at that institution.
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art has quite possibly the world’s premier collection of Korean art,
and we are profoundly grateful to Madame Ra Hee Hong Lee, Director General, and Ms. RaYoung
Hong, Deputy Director, of Leeum for their enthusiastic cooperation in organizing this exhibition and
in generously lending Leeum’s masterpieces. We thank the Korea Foundation for their visionary
support of the exhibition and for their interest in helping museums worldwide showcase the arts of
Korea. In addition, we are very grateful for Richard and Peggy Danziger’s commitment to the
project. The production of this catalogue has been generously aided by The Miriam and Ira D.
Wallach Foundation, whose support for the Metropolitan Museum’s endeavors related to Asian art
is deeply appreciated.

THOMAS P. CAMPBELL JAY XU, Ph D
Director Director
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Asian Art Museum — Chong-Moon Lee Center
for Asian Art and Culture