British Museum curator explores nuance of what is 'distinctively Korean' in exhibit spanning 2,000 years 

[INTERVIEW]

Korean identity has never been a fixed inheritance. Over 2,000 years, each generation has reinvented it in its own way, and that constant redefinition has kept what seems uniquely Korean in flux.

That fluidity is the central curatorial theme of the new “Korea: 2,000 Years of Creativity” exhibition that opened on Oct. 1 at the British Museum in London, according to Kim Sang-ah, the lead curator of the show. What counts as distinctively Korean is the question that Kim is asked most often in the years preparing for the exhibit, and one she admits to having thought through “over and over.”

“Being distinctively Korean is often a matter of nuance, something you can recognize after close looking,” Kim said during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Friday. “Far from being fixed or timeless, the quality of being Korean has always evolved and continues to evolve, and each generation responds to its own moment. It is more of an attitude, or a pattern — something Koreans have kept making and remaking.”

Kim, who studied at Korea University and SOAS University of London before joining the British Museum in 2019, has served as the curator of Korean collections since October 2021, overseeing and researching the museum's Korean holdings. She led the curation of the “Korea: 2,000 Years of Creativity” show with a team from the museum.

In early Buddhist art, that might mean iconography that departs from what was made on the continent. In the Goryeo period (918-1392), it was a new way of decorating celadon, and in the later part of Korea's Joseon era (1392-1910), it was true-view landscape painting, explained Kim.

“Openness to the outside world and a strong sense of identity are not in tension,” she added. “They’re not in competition, but rather they have evolved together.”

“Korea: 2,000 Years of Creativity” opened at the Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery and runs until Jan. 31 next year. Nearly all of its roughly 100 works come from the collection of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, whose family donated more than 23,000 objects to Korea’s national museums in 2021.

Lent by the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), the full set of art and treasures shown at the British Museum this time includes 10 National Treasures and 13 Treasures, most of them shown in Britain for the first time. London is the third stop of a tour that drew around 80,000 visitors in Washington and 115,000 in Chicago.

Naming the exhibit

“The title was decided closer to the exhibition opening, following discussions with many people in the museum, so it was not my sole decision,” Kim said, when asked about how such a short, sweeping name could give expectant audiences a sense of what they would see at the museum. “At the British Museum, we often use a stand-alone main title as an overarching frame for wide-ranging exhibitions, one that aims not to stereotype a culture but to open up multiple avenues of interpretation. ‘Korea’ is simple and striking enough to work in that way.”

Narrowing down the objects took longer. Kim called it “happy trouble.”

“The Lee Kun-hee Collection is a real wealth of objects, and we had to choose only a limited number to show here,” she said. “Looking back to the landmark 1984 British Museum exhibition ‘Treasures from Korea,’ and being keenly aware that there had been no major exhibition of premodern Korean art in London since then, we decided to aim for a broad historical sweep. We sought works of the highest quality that would exemplify the artistic genius and the cultural ethos of each era.”

The exhibition is arranged chronologically in four sections, each named with a pair of nouns rather than a dynasty.

“Wealth and Power” covers the early Iron Age to Unified Silla (c. 400 B.C.-A.D. 935), with gilt-bronze Silla burial shoes and a sixth-century Bodhisattva triad. “Wisdom and Beauty” is the Goryeo section, home to inlaid celadon and a gold-and-silver sutra. “Learning and Pleasure” covers Joseon, from a 1459 Buddhist text printed in hangul to the royal “Sun, Moon and Five Peaks” screen. “Individuality and Community” runs from the 20th century to the present.

“We wanted to suggest an interpretive framework that makes it easy for visitors to engage with each period, one that is both true to the works and captures the spirit of each era,” Kim said. “'Wealth and Power’ speaks to the concerns of the elite during the centuries of state formation up to Unified Silla, and we see those concerns reflected in the objects they cherished, like the ritual rattles or gold body ornaments.”

In Washington and Chicago, the emphasis was on Lee’s donation and on a private collection being shared with the public. Washington’s “Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared” made the act of collecting its subject, while Chicago’s “Korean National Treasures: 2,000 Years of Art” surveyed the same span by medium and presented the works as a gift made public. London drops “treasures” from the title and arranges Korea’s history around four ideas, carried through to the present.

“The Lee Kun-hee Collection is so broad and deep that it can be explored again and again, with almost unlimited possibilities for exhibitions,” Kim said. “Our colleagues in Washington and Chicago worked very closely with the National Museum of Korea and the MMCA to shape stories that best suited their own circumstances. In our case, this is the museum’s first major exhibition on Korea in more than 40 years, and we believe our visitors want to understand the visual and material culture within its historical context.”

A mountain in Seoul

Asked whether her idea of what represents Korea ever differed from what a British visitor might expect, Kim named one painting.

“There are certainly some works that resonate more deeply with Korean audiences who know the historical circumstances of their creation, or of the artist,” she said. “These same objects might not strike a Western viewer the same way, or as typically Korean. One example is Jeong Seon’s (1676-1759) ‘Clearing After Rain on Mount Inwang’ — a deeply personal and moving landscape of a place right in Seoul, painted by one of Korea’s most famous painters at the end of his life, when he was 75 years old.”

The 1751 scroll is a National Treasure and a landmark of true-view painting, which depicted real Korean scenery rather than idealized Chinese landscapes.

“Koreans can easily place themselves in the picture and almost feel the moisture in the atmosphere on their skin,” Kim went on.

She would not guess what a British visitor expects to find instead.

“It’s impossible to know what sorts of existing images overseas audiences may have,” Kim explained. “Someone who binge-watches Korean historical dramas will have a very different view from someone who is just into Korean cuisine. Ideally, this exhibition will have something new to offer everybody.”

Demon hunters in tow

Some labels in the exhibition refer to Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” (2025), the hugely popular animation film that made traditional images of Korea such as the tiger and magpie known worldwide.

“There is a saying in museums that exhibitions must meet audiences where they are, and that there should be something recognizable that makes a visitor feel welcome,” Kim said. “In this case we were very lucky, because two paintings in the exhibition, ‘Sun, Moon and Five Peaks’ and a tiger and magpie painting, show imagery that is central to ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ which was very popular. That connection was a happy coincidence, but once we saw it, we were very happy to point it out in our labels.”

On whether there are any risks in making old art and objects interesting only through pop culture, Kim did not see a problem.

“Pop culture can be a very good doorway,” she said. “It’s already well known that K-pop has inspired fans around the world to learn Korean and travel to Korea, not just to attend concerts but to learn more about Korean history and culture. Our reference to contemporary pop culture was done with a very light touch, and we tried to keep to the warm humor of the source.”

The audio guide for “Korea: 2,000 Years of Creativity” is voiced by actors Lee Byung-hun and Yerin Ha. Lee, who voices the demon king Gwi-ma in the film, is also the exhibition’s ambassador, which Kim pointed out as a first in the museum’s history.

What’s past is prologue

A few contemporary works, including Yee Soo-kyung’s “Translated Vase” (2011), are placed among the historical pieces at the exhibition at the British Museum. Kim did not present them as evidence of a single, unchanging Korean aesthetic.

“We only put a very few contemporary works on display, and it is difficult to argue that Korean aesthetics have stayed the same over time,” Kim said. “Korea’s past is a rich repository of raw material — its forms, technologies and layers of meaning — and contemporary artists may choose to mine it in thought-provoking ways. Not all artists who do so will have the same intent, but our argument here is that the past continues to inspire.”

Kim was a newborn when “Treasures from Korea,” the last British Museum show focusing solely on Korea, opened in 1984, and the job of presenting the history and culture to British audiences has changed since.

“The 1984 exhibition brought together a fabulous, astounding collection of treasures, and one message was certain: Look at what an extraordinary civilization Korea has been, and what a glorious past it has,” Kim said. “But at the time, contemporary Korea was not part of the story.”

Visitors today know Korea through K-pop, Samsung appliances and Hyundai and Kia cars, and often know little of what came before.

“Our task has changed. In 1984, it was to introduce an unfamiliar country through its past,” Kim said. “Now it is to show audiences who already know contemporary Korea the more than 2,000 years behind it.”

Not an easy collection

An exhibition built from a single collection can only show what that collection holds, and Kim did not pretend otherwise.

“An exhibition is quite different from a lecture or a book,” Kim said. “It must grow organically from the objects available for consideration, and from the space available, while an author or speaker is limited only by his or her imagination. More space would certainly have allowed a broader representation of artists, movements or masterworks of each era.”

Even this much took years for Kim and the curatorial team at the British Museum to put together. Ten National Treasures and 13 Treasures do not leave Korea easily, and Kim called the work with the two lending museums “not easy, and quite difficult.”

“And of course I felt a very heavy responsibility in creating this kind of exhibition, especially as there are so many scholars and critics in Korea and elsewhere who are invested in the outcome,” Kim said. “Collectively, we strove to create an exhibition that would delight the eye, stimulate the mind and nurture further interest in Korean culture.”

Would a bigger room have produced a different Korea? Kim thought not — only a thicker one.

“I don’t think it would have changed the story, but it would have added another layer to it.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]