Introduction to Korean Art (Fall 2015)
Instructor: Jiyeon Kim (/)
Meeting Time: Tu/F 11:00-12:20 (Madel Ctr for Humanties G11)
Office Hours: Tu/F 10:00-11:00 or by appointment
Course Description
This course is a survey of Korean arts, archaeology, and material culture from the Neolithicperiod to the Mid-20th century. The first part of the course examines early archaeological findings, and then progresses to religious and secular arts and artifacts of the Three Kingdoms period (57 B.C.- A.D. 668), the Unified Silla period (A.D. 668-918), and the Goryeo (Koryǒ) period (A.D. 918-1392). Native traditions and the introduction of foreign cultures will be discussed in relation to the formation of the distinct material culture of the Korean peninsula. Selected examples of tomb murals, ceramics, metal works, and Buddhist icons will be analyzed in this context. The second part will cover the Joseon (Chosǒn) dynasty (1392-1910) and the Colonial period (1910-1945).Emphasis will be put on the stylistic and thematic evolution of Joseon painting and its socio-cultural context, but other media such as ceramics, furniture and textiles will also be presented. Topics in this part of the course include Neo-Confucianism as a new state ideology and its influence on the aesthetics and tastes of the scholarly elite; the development of vernacular themes and styles of painting; the rise of popular taste in the late Joseon period; and, the shifting concepts of art and artistic identity during the socio-cultural transition and political turmoil at the end of the Joseon and the Colonial periods.
Required Readings
Chǒng Yangmo et al., Arts of Korea, New York: The Metropolitan Museum, 2000
Jane Portal, Korea: Art and Archaeology, London: British Museum, 2000
Course Reader: A collection of articles from a variety of sources drawn from Eastern and Western analyses as well as translation of primary texts.
Assignments and exams
Regular attendance, weekly reading and participation in class discussion are required (20%). The midterm (30%) and final exams (30%) will consist of slide identification questions, short essay questions based on comparison and contrasts of two slides, and one longer essay question. One visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and one visit toM. Sackler Museumof Harvard University will be included in the course schedule. Two short (maximum four pages each) papers will be assigned as a part of the class requirements (20%).
Schedule:
Week 1 (Aug 28)
1. Introduction: Overview of the course
Week 2 (Sep 1, 4)
1. Neolithic and Bronze Culture: Early Burial Sites and Petroglyphs
2. Formation of Early Kingdom-States /Lelang and Han Influence
Required Readings:
Portal. 23-41.
Rhee Song Nai. “Burial System inPrehistoric Korea and their Socio-Ethnic Significance.”
Pearson, Richard, “The Archaeological Background to Korean Prehistoric Arts”(Reader)
Pai Hyung Il, “The Nangnang Triangle China, Korea, and Japan.” (Reader)
Recommended Reading:
Nelson, Archaeology of Korea, 111-205.
Best, Jonathan, “Profile of the Korean Past.” (Arts of Korea)
Week 3 (Sep 8,11)
1. Three Kingdoms Period: Tombs and Burial Sites
2. Goguryeo (Koguryǒ )tomb paintings: origins of Korean figure and landscape painting and its stylistic and iconographic development
Required Reading:
Portal, 43-77 (for the following Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla sessions)
Lee Junghee, “The Evolution of Koguryǒ Tomb Murals” (Reader)
Recommended Reading:
Ahn Hwi-joon, “The Origin and Development of Landscape Painting,” 299-302 (Arts of Korea)
Week 4 (Sep 18)
1. Questions on the Identity of the Deceased: Anak No.3 (Discussion)
2. Burial objects (bronze, gold, ceramics, etc) and Material Culture of Three Kingdoms.
Required Reading:
Rhee Song Nai, “Kaya: Korea’s Lost Kingdom” (Reader)
Required Reading:
Soon-seop, Ham, “Gold Culture of the Silla Culture and Maripgan)
Week 5 (Sep 22, 25)
1. Burial objects and Material Culture of Three Kingdoms (continue)
2. Buddhist art in the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla period: transmission of iconography and style from China to Korea, and to Japan. Regional Styles of Three Kingdoms.
Required Reading:
Best, Jonathan, “The Transmission and Transformation of Early Buddhist Culture in Korea and Japan”
Recommended Reading:
Kim Lena, “Tradition and Transformation of Korean Buddhist Sculpture” (Arts of Korea)
McCallum, Donald, “Korean Influence on Early Japanese Sculpture”
Week 6 (Oct2)
1. Buddhist art of the Three Kingoms period (continue)
2. Seokguram (Sǒkkuram) Grotto: Structure, Iconography, Style, and the Issues of Reconstruction
Required Reading:
Kang Woo-bang, “Avatamsaka Sūtra in the Unified Silla Period: The Sanctuary of Sǒkkuram and Hwaǒm-kyǒng Pyǒnsangdo (Reader)
Week 7 (Oct 6,9)
1. Seokguram (Sǒkkuram) Grotto: Structure, Iconography, Style, and the Issues of Reconstruction (continue and discussion)
2. Development of Korean ceramics—technical and stylistic innovations of Goryeo (Koryǒ) ceramics
Required Reading:
Portal, 80-106 (for the following Goryeo sessions)
Recommended Reading
Edward Shultz, “Cultural History of Goryeo” (Reader)
Chung Yang-mo, “The Art of the Korean Potter, (220-241)” (Arts of Korea)
Kim Jae-yeol. “Goryeo Celadon” (Reader)
Week 8 (Oct 13, 16)
1. Goryeo Buddhist painting: technical and iconographical significance /Mid-term Review
2. Mid-term Examination
Required Reading:
Ide Seinosuke “The World of Goryeo Buddhist Painting” (Reader)
Week 9 (Oct 20, 23)
1 Goryeo Buddhist Sculpture /Tripitaka Koreanaand State protectionism/Goryeo architecture/Secular Paintings of Goryeo and early Joseon
2 Visit to M.F.A
Required Reading:
Lee Junghee, “Goryeo Buddhist Scupture” (Reader)
Ahn Hwi-joon, “The Origin and Development of Landscape Painting,” 301 310 (Arts of Korea)
Week 10 (Oct 24,30)
1. Early Joseon Ceramics: Buncheon (Punch’ ǒng) and porcelain/ An Gyeon (An Kyǒn) ’s Dream Journey to Peach Blossom Spring and its political context)(Discussion)
2. Mid-Joseon paintng, Influence of the Zhe School and introduction of literati style. Women artists and patrons
Required Reading:
Insoo Cho, Confucianism and the Art of the Joseon Dynasty
Ahn Hwi-joon, “An Kyǒn and ‘Dream Journey to Peach Blossom Land” (Reader)
Burglind Jungmann, “Chinese Antiquity as an Ideal Paradise
Burglind Jungmann, “Women as Artists and Patrons”
Week 11 (Nov3, 6)
1. Popularization of Korean topographic painting: what is “true scenery?”
2. Genre painting as representation of social distinction and social mingling/ Documentary painting and portraiture (Paper 1 due)
Required Reading:
Burglind Jungmann, The Question of True Scenery: Jeong Seon”
Jo Yeongseok
Burglind Jungmann, “Between Old and New: Yun Dusoe and Chung Sehyang, “The Daily Lives of Commoners: Changing Images of Late Chosǒn Genre Painting” (Reader)
Recommended Reading :
Burglind Jugmann, “The Korean Reception of the ‘Southern School of Painting’”
Week 12 (Nov 10, 13)
1. Court Art/Buddhist Art of Joseon
2. Visit to M. Sackler Museum
Required Reading:
Kim Hongnam, “Exploring Eighteenth-Century Court Arts”(Reader)
Kang Woobang, “Ritual and Art During the Eighteenth Century.” (Reader)
Recommended Reading:
. Yi Sǒngmi. “The Screen of the Five Peaks of the Chosǒn Dynasty.”
Haboushi, JaHyun Kim, “Public and Private in Court Art.”
Cho Sunmi, “Faces from the Past: Korea’s Portrait Paintings”
Black Kay E. and Edward W. Wagner, “Court Style Ch’aekkori” in Hopes and Aspiration
Week 13 (Nov. 17,20)
1. Kim Jeonghui (Kim Chǒnghǔi) and 19th century Korean art--proliferation of Chinese literati style painting.
2. Period of Transition: the end of Joseon: Viewing of a video clip from movie Chihwaseon(Drunken Painting Immortal) (discussion)
Required Reading:
Burglind Jungmann, “Orthodox and Revival: From Kim Jeonghui to An Jungsik”
Week 14 (No.24)
1. What is folk art?
2.
Required Reading:
Portal: 143-173
Burglind Jungmann, Court Painting and Minhwa.
Week 15 (Dec1,4)
1. Art at the End of the 19th century The first generation western style pain (paper 2 due)
2. Colonial Period and after
Required Reading:
Youngna Kim, Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea:1-65
Recommended Reading:
Youngna Kim, Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea:66-97
Young-na Kim, “Artistic Trend in Korean Painting during the 1930s,” Marlene Mayo and Thomas Rimer Eds., War, Occupation, and Creativity: Japan and East Asia,1920-1960, Honolulu: Uiversity of Hawaii Press, 2001: 121-148
Yuki Kikuchi, Japanese Modernisation and Mingei Theory: Cultural Naturalism and Oriental Orientalism, London:Routledge, 2004:1-40
Joan Kee, Korean Contemporary Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method
Week 16 (December 8)
1. Final Review
December 15
Final examination
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