Date:
Location:
Korean Treasures at Harvard Series Part 1
Soyoung Lee
Landon and Lavinia Clay Chief Curator, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University
Soyoung Lee is the Landon and Lavinia Clay Chief Curator at the Harvard Art Museums, where she oversees the museums’ exhibitions program and curatorial vision for acquiring and presenting the collections. The Harvard Art Museums’ collection numbers around 255,000 objects spanning the globe and from ancient times to today. She also directs the Art Museums’ training program of curatorial, conservation, and education fellows. Most recently in fall 2022, she co-organized, along with her colleague, curator Sarah Laursen, a special installation of Harvard’s Korean art collection in conjunction with the 40th anniversary celebration of Harvard’s Korea Institute. Soyoung’s areas of curatorial expertise and research interests include Korean and Japanese ceramics from 1400-1900, issues of cross-cultural exchanges in East Asia, and contemporary Asian art. Between 2003-2018, Soyoung worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art as the Met’s first Curator for Korean Art. In that role, she contributed to raising the profile of Korean art and culture in the U.S. Her exhibitions and publications include Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art in 2018, highlighting the symbolic place of the iconic Kumgang Mountains in Korean cultural history; Silla: Korea’s Golden Kingdom in 2013, a major blockbuster show co-organized with the National Museum of Korea and Gyeongju National Museum; and Poetry in Clay: Korean Buncheong Ceramics from Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in 2011. She received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University.
Chaired by Sun Joo Kim, Harvard-Yenching Professor of Korean History, Harvard University
Abstract:
The Korean collection at the Harvard Art Museums numbers more than 700 objects ranging from Silla-kingdom pottery to works by modern and contemporary artists, as well as over 700 ceramic sherds. This talk, part 1 of a 2-part presentation, sheds light on the breadth of the collection which came to the Museums through gifts, bequests, and purchase, and the stories and people associated with the art. Featured highlights include rare masterpieces of Buddhist art and examples of iconic ceramics for which Korea is celebrated, as well as literati paintings, textiles and photographs.
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To attend this online event, please register here.
Generously supported by the Jeffrey D. and Jean K. Lee Fund at the Korea Institute, Harvard University