Kansong Art MuseumSeongbuk-dong, Seongbuk-gu
Sangseo (Box Inscriptions)
Marking Jeon Hyeong-pil's 120th birth anniversary, a show reading the Kansong Collection through the records inscribed on its paulownia storage boxes and the history of its preservation.
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On the second floor, Kim Hong-do's Nangwon Tudo hangs next to the paulownia box it was stored in. Inside the lid, Oh Se-chang wrote in 1934 that it was a rare masterpiece of Danwon's figure painting. You read the box first, then look at the painting.
From 1930, Jeon Hyeong-pil had a box made for each piece he bought, and connoisseurs including Oh, Yi Do-yeong and the Japanese scholar Nagao Usan wrote on them in ink: the title, the technique, why they believed it genuine. Of about 700 boxes the museum holds, 258 carry inscriptions. Here 30 of them sit beside 21 works, Joseon painting and Kim Jeong-hui upstairs, modern painting downstairs. Each box cost as much as dozens of sacks of rice, a different relationship with packaging from the Coupang boxes by your front door.
It closes a three-year series on how the Kansong Collection was formed. Entry is by advance online booking only, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, until 6 December.
Editor's pick
Kim Hong-do's Nangwon Tudo hangs beside the paulownia box it was kept in, the lid inscribed in 1934 by Oh Se-chang. Thirty such boxes, annotated by the connoisseurs who vouched for Kansong's collection, sit next to 21 works.
Look for
Kim Hong-do's Nangwon Tudo and its box
Look for Dongfang Shuo painted as an ordinary man rather than a fantastical immortal, beside the lid where Oh Se-chang praised it in 1934.
The guestbook lid of Im Hui-ji's Pungjuk
The box for this wind-blown bamboo carries comment after comment from several writers, including the poet Jo Su-sam, layered like a guestbook.
Oh Se-chang's apology on Chahohogong
Upstairs in the Kim Jeong-hui section, Oh's note on the box of this Treasure asks Kansong to forgive him for writing at such length.
Jo Seok-jin's Haenghaengdo-gwon
On the first floor, a 990.7 cm handscroll follows King Gojong's royal procession of the early 1880s.
The stone tigers at the door
A pair of Joseon tomb-guardian tigers, won by Jeon at a 1935 auction for 1,200 won, have replaced the Chinese lions outside Bohwagak.
Good for
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
On now nearby
Image credits
2
- Dali · Differently · DaliCourtesy of Hangaram Art Museum
- Kansong Art Museum한국학중앙연구원·김형수 / Wikimedia Commons