Glimpse of Korean, Japanese art at Cleveland Museum

By Chung Ah-young

The Cleveland Museum of Art will hold an exhibition offering a look into the artwork of Korea and Japan inspired by Chinese poetry.

The exhibition, titled “The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art,” will display 80 objects from the museum’s preeminent Asian collection, dating from the 14th to the 21st centuries, from March 27 to Aug. 28.

The event is designed to present Japanese and Korean artists’ endeavors to combine visual art and poetry as they reinterpreted the themes of classical Chinese poetry through a variety of visual media such as calligraphy, painting and decorative arts.

The fusion of art and poetry is a theme Japanese and Korean artists have explored for centuries. The exhibition will feature artworks from the Muromachi, Momoyama and Edo periods of Japan (1392-1867), the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) as well as contemporary objects.

Korean and Japanese artists alike indulged in the pursuit of knowledge and refinement reflected in Chinese poems, which portrayed their spiritual utopia and liberation from a mundane life. They interpreted the Chinese literary works with their own cultural aesthetic perspectives.

Japanese and Korean artists also used Chinese poetry as a window for exploring distant landscapes.

“The artworks in this exhibition explore the theme of liberation from a mundane life through armchair reclusion. Without completely withdrawing from the dusty world, the artists achieved spiritual freedom and inner utopia in their poetry and painting,” said Sun Seung-hye, associate curator of Japanese and Korean Art for the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Japanese and Korean artists created rich artifacts such as hanging scrolls and screens reflecting the relationship between humankind and the natural world. “Literary Gathering,” a hanging scroll with calligraphy from the 1500s, epitomizes the refined way of life idealized by the scholarly classes in Japan and Korea.

Contemporary Japanese and Korean artists like Aoyama Sanu, Takaki Seikaku, Takaki Seiu from Japan and Kim Sung-soo from Korea will also offer a modern interpretation of Chinese poetry through the visual arts in the exhibition.

“The Lure of Painted Poetry” is the first exhibition conceived and organized by Sun for the museum. Before being appointed as curator for the museum last year, Sun served as curator at the National Museum of Korea in 2002-2008 in Seoul and in 2009 in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province.

The exhibition will include complementary programs such as lectures by the curator and David McCann, Korea Foundation professor of Korean Literature at Harvard University, a paper-making demonstration and family activities. Visit www.clevelandart.org for more information.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 40,000 objects. Currently undergoing a multi-phase renovation and expansion project, the museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarships, performing arts and art education.

For more information about the museum, its holdings, programs and events, visit www.ClevelandArt.org.