National Museum of KoreaYongsan-gu
Hearts That Share Beauty: Newly Donated Artifacts 2
Second display of newly donated artifacts, on calligraphy shared between calligrapher and donor: works by Hwang Gi-ro, Kim Gu and Yi Gi-u, and a poem album. Donation Room 4.
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On a ten-panel screen dated 8 January 1949, Kim Gu's brush looks as if it is trembling. He wrote it for a fellow independence fighter, recalling Lee Bong-chang's 1932 attack, the resolve of his own years in the movement and his worry for a country that still lacked a working state.
It is one of four donated works, 13 pieces in all, in a single room of the permanent galleries. You move between scripts as much as centuries: the water-smooth cursive of Hwang Gi-ro, Joseon's "sage of cursive", Kim Gu's regular script and Yi Gi-u's 20th-century seal script. New to the public is a 1670 album where ten writers took turns on farewell poems for a friend leaving for Beijing. It's an office rolling paper, Joseon edition, and nobody got away with just "Fighting!"
It's free, in Donation Room 4 (room 205, second floor of the permanent galleries), until 15 November. The museum stays open until 9pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Look for
Kim Gu's liberation screen
Look for ten panels of old texts and a sijo on liberation in Kim Gu's shaky-looking regular script, written on 8 January 1949 for a comrade.
Hwang Gi-ro's Respectfully Following the Rhymes
A Treasure-designated 16th-century work where Joseon's 'sage of cursive' wrote his own poem about drifting at ease among mountains and streams, in strokes that run like water.
The farewell album for Jeong Hwa-je
Shown for the first time: poems ten writers, including Nam Yong-ik, wrote in 1670 as Jeong left for Qing Beijing, plus six more for his 1672 posting to Jongseong.
Yi Gi-u's Muhak Sanbang
Seal script by the 20th-century calligrapher who carried the tradition on, donated in 2021 by a former museum director and on public view for the first time.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You want a big show: this is four calligraphy works in one donation room.
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Image credits
5
- FROM 1926 TO INFINITYCourtesy of National Hangeul Museum
- Sol LeWitt: Open StructureCourtesy of Amorepacific Museum of Art (APMA)
- National Museum of KoreaJinah78 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- War Memorial of KoreaAdbar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Amorepacific Museum of Art (APMA)kallerna / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0