Lee Kun-hee collection exhibit at Smithsonian’s NMAA an 'unprecedented opportunity,' museum director says

The Sackler Gallery at the National Museum of Asian Art [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART] 

Nearly a century after becoming the first U.S. museum dedicated to Asian art, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) is set to make history again — this time with the first international showcase of the Lee Kun-hee collection, one of Korea’s most celebrated private art legacies.

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, home to 21 museums and galleries including the National Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum, draws nearly 30 million visitors annually.

Among them, the oldest museum is the NMAA, established in 1923 as the Smithsonian’s first art museum.

This November, the NMAA will host the first overseas traveling exhibition of the late Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee's collection. The exhibit will then travel to the Art Institute of Chicago and the British Museum in London.

To prepare for the exhibition, NMAA Director Chase F. Robinson, 62, visited Korea on May 22. During his four-day trip, he visited institutions linked to the collection, including the National Museum of Korea, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Leeum Museum of Art and Hoam Museum of Art. 

Chase F. Robinson, director of the National Museum of Asian Art [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART] 

Robinson described the upcoming exhibition as an “unprecedented opportunity” to showcase some 210 Korean items to the American public.

“The great majority is from Lee Kun-hee, but then a small number [are] from the Leeum as well,” he added. “We’re still planning; we’re still getting approvals. I think the precise number will be settled in the next four to six weeks, maybe.”

The Leeum Museum holds 10 state-designated National Treasures, including a celadon ewer with lotus design, a golden crown from the Gaya Confederacy (42-562), a bronze inlaid incense box with phoenix design from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) and “Painting of Taoist Immortals," a monumental folding screen by Kim Hong-do (1745-1806).

The collection, assembled by Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull and later expanded by his son Lee Kun-hee, includes some of Korea’s most iconic artworks. 

The Peacock Room at the National Museum of Asian Art [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART] 

Robinson said that the NMAA will conduct joint art historical conservation research for the next two to three years with ewers from Leeum’s collection.

The NMAA originated from the donation of American industrialist Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919). Its collection spans the ancient to modern eras of Korea, China, Japan, South and Southeast Asia and the Islamic world, as well as American art from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. It was also one of the first U.S. institutions to display Korean art and now holds over 800 Korean pieces.

Among Freer’s donations is a Goryeo Buddhist painting of Avalokiteshvara, or “Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara,” and a celadon ewer resembling the Leeum-held National Treasure — a lotus-shaped bottle whose entire body mimics a lotus leaf. The masterpiece was fired using a glaze mixed with copper oxide, creating a warm reddish copper overlay contrasting with its bluish green base color.

Choe Hang (1209-1257), a powerful military official of the Goryeo Dynasty, is known to have commissioned multiple such ewers, but only three are known to survive today. One of the others is housed in the Hamburger Kunsthalle art museum in Hamburg, Germany.

In 2023, to mark its centennial, the NMAA opened a dedicated gallery for contemporary art and chose Korean media artist Park Chan-kyong for its inaugural exhibition. Known also as the younger brother of filmmaker Park Chan-wook, Park presented “Child Soldier,” a multimedia work that explored the division of the Korean Peninsula, as well as video, installation art and photography. Last year, the museum featured Do Ho Suh’s sculpture “Public Figures” in its central plaza.

A 14th-century Buddhist painting from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) owned by the National Museum of Asian Art [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART] 

Robinson is a scholar of Islamic history and culture. After graduating from Brown University, he earned a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. He previously served as a professor of early Islamic history at the University of Oxford and later as president of the City University of New York’s Graduate Center.  

Since joining the NMAA as director in late 2018, he has expanded the museum’s collection by more than 5,400 pieces and strengthened its international partnerships.  

“I think the future of museums lies less in accumulating and more in collaborating,” he said, “The future of museums lies less in speaking in a single voice and more in speaking in multiple voices.”

The Smithsonian’s upcoming Lee Kun-hee collection exhibition stems from a memorandum of understanding signed between Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Smithsonian Institution during former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit to the United States in 2023. By the time the exhibition opens in November, both countries will be under different leadership.   

“There has been a change in the political scene in America, and there has been and will be change on the political scene here in Korea,” Robinson said. “But our museum was established 102 years ago on the basis of a collection that started to be assembled almost 140 years ago.

“So we think in terms of the long term; the collaborations we’re building with the National Museum of Korea, the MMCA or Leeum — these are collaborations and partnerships that we trust will take place and flourish regardless of who’s occupying political roles.”

The following interview has been edited for clarity. 

A 13th-century ewer similar to one owned by the Leeum Museum of Art, except this one doesn't have a lid [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART] 

Q. Why is the Smithsonian Institution exhibiting the Lee Kun-hee collection?

A. Lee Kun-hee was an extraordinary collector, and his family has made a gift to the Korean people. And in some ways, that resonates with our museum, because our museum is founded upon a great gift by another industrialist who personally put together an extraordinary collection and then gave it to his country. So there’s a parallel. Another reason is that it provided an unprecedented opportunity to present to the American public a comprehensive view of Korean art from the Three Kingdoms all the way through the 20th century, with over 200 objects.

The NMAA also holds Korean artworks that resonate with pieces from the Lee Kun-hee collection. Will they be displayed together in the upcoming exhibition?

No. It’s an exhibition about Lee Kun-hee’s passion for collecting and his interests. Of course, we hope that visitors who enjoy that show will be drawn to our Korean gallery. We hope that visitors to that show might also take an interest in the galleries that show our permanent collection. But this is a show devoted to his project and to giving our audience an opportunity for that comprehensive treatment of Korean art they deserve.

Why did the NMAA — best known for its collection of ancient Asian art — decide to open a dedicated gallery for contemporary art?

We continue to build our collection of traditional materials, which is growing all the time. Over the last five or six years, we’ve added about 5,000 works of both traditional and modern art. Our founding father collected contemporary art in his time, and I think he understood that for a museum to remain relevant, it’s important to continue to grow.

Our visitor numbers are up about 15 or 20 percent from pre-Covid numbers, and we’re very pleased that our visitors are younger on average than in your typical American art museum. 

″Public Figures″ by Do Ho Suh installed at the National Museum of Asian Art [SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION] 

From Park Chan-kyong and Do Ho Suh to the Lee Kun-hee collection, why is the NMAA deepening its focus on Korean art?

Korean popular culture, in particular, has become very compelling for American audiences and is of great deal of interest. We ourselves have experienced that — for instance, the Chuseok celebration, in which 8,000 or 10,000 visitors came. We decided that we really needed to concentrate on building our program in Korea, and what better way to build it out than to do a series of significant exhibitions?

How did local audiences respond to the exhibitions featuring Park Chan-kyong and Do Ho Suh?

Park Chan-kyong gave us the opportunity to present to an American audience the aspects of Korean history that are less familiar to American audiences than they might be. His reflections about the Korean War, the role of shamanism in Korean culture — those are serious observations that we thought important to be shared with our audience.  

Do Ho Suh’s “Public Figures” is an older work, but it was presented to an American audience and asked fundamental questions: "Can one memorialize the past? If so, how does one do it? How does one think about the past as a collective effort or an individual effort?" These were two great contemporary artists with important things to say.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff. 

Reference
Written by KWON KEUN-YOUNG [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]
Provided by Korea JoongAng Daily

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