On view at the Philadelphia Museum June 19⁓eptember 26, “Plain Beauty: Korean White Porcelain/Photographs by Bohnchang Koo” will explore the elegance and simple beauty of plain white porcelains of the Joseon dynasty (1392‱910) through the viewfinder of Bohnchang Koo, a Korean photographer who made a four-year project of photographing these ceramics, and through the display of 16 examples of Korean white porcelain.
Produced since the beginning of the Fifteenth Century, white porcelains mirrored the neo-Confucian ideals and restrained taste of the Joseon’s ruling elites. The vessels in the exhibition were fashioned for a variety of functions, ranging from a small water dropper to an imposing globular “moon jar.” In addition to presenting works created during the Joseon dynasty, the exhibition also includes contemporary ceramics inspired by these historic wares from the museum’s collection and on loan from other collections.
“These vessels represent exquisite craftsmanship and their qualities are made all the more manifest when seen in the context of Koo’s large-scale, almost portraitlike photographs,” said Hyunsoo Woo, the Maxine and Howard Lewis Associate Curator of Korean Art. “Koo captures the stained, cracked and worn surfaces of these ceramics in a beautiful and subtle light. We believe that the dialogue between the vessels and the photographs will transcend both the difference in medium and the different times in which they were created.”
Although the development of ceramics in East Asia was closely related among neighboring countries, Korea’s preference for plain white porcelain was prominently distinguished from that of China and Japan.
Drawn from the museum’s collection and supplemented by loans from public and private collections, the wares in the exhibition range from early Fifteenth Century examples to ceramics from the Twenty-First Century, including a vessel created in 2009 by Gee-Jo Lee.
The porcelains made at different times during the 500-year period represented in the exhibition are distinguished by subtle differences in shapes, styles and tones. Early white porcelains are characterized by a “milky white” or “snow white” body, whereas Seventeenth Century wares are generally distinguished by their “grayish” hue. Works from the Eighteenth Century and later bear a “bluish” tint, as seen in the bamboo and prunus bottle and a flowerpot stand.
The photographs of Bohnchang Koo (b 1953) also portray a large sample of monochromatic porcelains from a broad period of time. Koo has worked with subjects including insects, animals and plants, and self-portraits, frequently examining themes of life and death.
In 1998, he started incorporating his Korean heritage and tradition more directly into his work in the series called “Masks.” To capture the images in the “Vessel” series, 2004′008, seen in this exhibition, Koo visited museums in Korea and abroad. He photographed the variable hues of white ceramics in black and white as well as in color with a fleshy pink tone. Twenty photographs will be included in this exhibition.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street. For information, 215-763-8100 or www.philamuseum.org .
