Detail: Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910 is the first full-scale survey in the United States to be devoted to art of the celebrated Joseon dynasty (1392–1910), a period that spanned half a millennium and profoundly shaped the culture and identity of Korea today. Comprised of more than 150 works drawn primarily from the National Museum of Korea’s collection and supplemented by objects from public and private collections in Korea and the United States, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity for American audiences to see some of Korea’s artistic masterpieces, including a number of national treasures. A variety of themes - kingship and courtly life, Joseon society, ancestral rites, the place of Confucianism and Buddhism, and Joseon in modern times-reflect the philosophy of the dynasty and the historical and cultural dynamics that shaped Korean life during this time.

The exhibition represents one of two international exhibitions that are part of a multi-institutional collaborative exchange between the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Museum of Korea (NMK), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), and the Terra Foundation for American Art in 2013–14. In early 2013, Art Across America, featuring some of the nation’s finest works of American art drawn from the collections of the four US museums from the colonial era to the present day, traveled to the NMK in Seoul, and the Daejeon Museum of Art. In 2014, Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910 will be on view at the Museum, LACMA, and MFAH.