Likeness and Legacy in Korean Portraiture

Portrait of Lee Sam, 1751
Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
Ink and colors on silk. Hampyeong Lee Family Collection
Photograph © Baekje Military Museum. Likeness and Legacy in Korean Portraiture is the first significant exhibition on Korean portraiture in the United States. It demonstrates that the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is at the forefront of presenting Korean art of the past and the present. The museum has the longest history — in terms of exhibitions, programs, and research — of presenting Korean art in the United States. The research and interpretation that went into this show and this, its accompanying catalogue, manifest the museum’s leadership in the field. Likeness and Legacy in Korean Portraiture is derived in large part from the museum’s own collection, which is testament to the high quality of the museum’s Korean art. The museum always looks for novel ways to present Korean art and culture, and this show exemplifies our role in the field.

This is the latest in a series of innovative exhibitions of Korean art that the Asian Art Museum has undertaken. This focus began in 1979 with 5000 Years of Korean Art, a landmark exhibition of national treasures organized in conjunction with the National Museum of Korea. Two shows of Korean art — Goryeo Dynasty: Korea’s Age of Enlightenment and Leaning Forward Looking Back: Eight Contemporary Artists from Korea — helped to inaugurate the museum’s 2003 move to its current location in San Francisco’s Civic Center, while In Grand Style: Celebrations in Korean Art during the Joseon Dynasty helped to mark the move’s tenth anniversary in 2013. More recently, the Couture Korea show in 2017–2018, co-organized with Arumjigi Culture Keepers Foundation, celebrated clothing design from Korea’s Joseon dynasty (1392– 1910) and today. Korean art has been an essential component of exhibitions of multicultural contemporary art at the museum, including First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian (2015), Gorgeous (2014), and Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past (2012).

It is only appropriate that as the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco reaches another milestone in its development with its 2020 transformation this exhibition of Korean art be part of the celebration.