This catalogue was published alongside an exhibition that explored the art and visual culture of the first two centuries of the Chosŏn period (1392–1910). One has to congratulate curator Soyoung Lee for assembling the most superb examples of early Chosŏn art from museums and private collections in the U.S., Korea, Europe and Japan, many of which were previously known only to specialists. While its emphasis was on painting and ceramics, the show also incorporated lacquer ware, Buddhist sculpture, and printed books.
The introductory essay by the recently deceased eminent historian JaHyun Kim Haboush outlines the ideological, institutional, legal, religious and cultural changes inaugurated in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which resulted in a truly revolutionary departure from the state and society of the preceding Koryŏ dynasty. She discusses the tensions between kings and their administration—a rivalry she traces back to Silla times—the extraordinary position of the censors (in the East...
