Navigation auf uzh.ch
Navigation auf uzh.ch
The symposium will take place at the University of Zurich on
Wednesday, 26th and Thursday, 27th June 2019 in room RAA-G-01
(Aula, Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zurich)
The symposium is free and open to the public, no prior registration is necessary.
Most presentations will be held in English. For presentations held in other languages English translations will be provided.
For questions, please contact the Section for East Asian Art: kgoa@khist.uzh.ch
A two-day international symposium Korean Art in the West: Tracing Objects from Creation to Collection will take place at the University of Zurich, Switzerland on 26th-27th June 2019. This symposium will feature leading and emerging scholars from Korea, Japan, Switzerland, the USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Sweden specialising in Korean art history.
Objects from East Asia can be found in many museums and private collections throughout the world. Objects of art travel, change ownership and acquire new meanings and functions. Sometimes they are subjects of evaluations and victims of cultural clichés. Igor Kopytoff in his seminal essay “The Cultural Biography of Things” proposes to treat objects as living beings with distinct biographies and suggests a number of questions pertinent to their study: what were the circumstances and purposes of the production of the objects, how do the objects move and change in contexts of reception and use (Kopytoff 1986: 66).
The symposium aims to represent various case studies of Korean art in the West to create an overview of the state of research and methodologies in the field. It seeks to explore the trajectories of movement of Korean art in the past centuries and its reception outside of Korea. Our focus lies on the collecting practices, museum displays and cultural mediation, appropriations and uses of Korean art in the West, and on the comparative perspectives on similar processes in Korea.
The symposium is planned as part of a larger research project that includes an exhibition at the Historical and Ethnological Museum in St. Gallen entitled "Poesie der Farben" (“The Poetry of Colours”, held at the Historical and Ethnological Museum in St. Gallen, 2nd Sept 2017–10th June 2018), which was co-organised by the University of Zurich. The origin of this project lies in the efforts to include Korea more deeply in the study of East Asian art. Another purpose is to encourage further academic studies in Korean art, history and culture at the university level.
As the first symposium of its kind in bringing together Korean art scholars to Switzerland, it attempts to give a deeper insight into the collections of Korean art in Switzerland and other countries as well as to open a new field of public and academic interest in the study of Korea. The symposium can be seen as a keystone in Korean art studies in Switzerland. Furthermore, it seeks to make Korean art accessible to a wider audience and so to raise public interest and awareness of Korean art and culture. The symposium serves to illustrate the long-standing relations between Switzerland and Korea, and aims to reinforce these connections for the future.
9:30 – 10:00 Registration for speakers
10:00 – 10:15 Welcome from the University of Zurich (UZH) Organizers
Prof. Dr. Hans Bjarne Thomsen (Section for East Asian Art, UZH)
with Natasha Fischer-Vaidya, PhD Candidate (Section for East
Asian Art, UZH)
10:15 – 12:15 Panel 1: Collectors and Collections, I
Chair: Sabine Bradel, PhD Candidate, Section for East Asian
Art (UZH)
10:15 – 10:55 Prof. Dr. Hans Bjarne Thomsen, University of Zurich
Travelling Bowls: Social Lives of Korean Ceramics
Abstract (PDF, 19 KB)
10:55 – 11:35 Prof. Dr. Jeong-hee Lee-Kalisch, Free University of Berlin
A Semiotic Narrative Investigation on a Goryeo Illuminated
Manuscript: The Dae Banggwangbul Hwaeomgyeong (Avatamsaka
sūtra), Vol. 72, in the New York Public Library
Abstract (PDF, 33 KB)
11:35 – 12:15 Prof. Seinosuke Ide, Kyushu University
Korean Paintings Amidst "Chinese-Style Paintings": Japanese
Reception and International Circulation of Paintings of Peninsular
Origin
Abstract (PDF, 24 KB)
12:15 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:20 Panel 2: Receptions of Korean Art in the Museum Context
Chair: Dr. Alban von Stockhausen, Curator, Bern Historical Museum
14:00 – 14:40 Dr. Ariane Perrin, The Centre for Studies on China, Korea and Japan,
UMR 8173
Shamanic Paintings of Chosŏn Korea: Tracing History from
Collections back to Sacred Ritual Objects
Abstract (PDF, 22 KB)
14:40 – 15:20 Dr. Patricia Frick, Curator, Museum of Lacquer Art, Muenster
Refined Craftsmanship and Exquisite Beauty – Goryeo Lacquer
Artefacts in Western Collections
Abstract (PDF, 23 KB)
15:20 – 16:00 Coffee Break
16:00 – 16:30 Welcoming Speeches
Prof. Dr. Michael Hengartner (President, University of Zurich)
His Excellency, Ambassador Kwon Haeryong (Embassy of the
Republic of Korea)
16:30 – 17:20 Keynote Speech
Dr. Eleanor Hyun, Curator of Korean Art, British Museum
Contexts: Korean Art and the British Museum
Abstract (PDF, 25 KB)
17:20 ~ Reception, Lichthof, Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zürich
10:00 – 12:00 Panel 3: Arts of the Goryeo and Joseon Periods
Chair: Rosa Jiyun Kim, PhD Candidate, Section for East Asian Art,
UZH
10:00 – 10:40 Prof. Dr. Em. Sunpyo Hong, Director, Center for Art Studies, Korea
The Export of Korean Genre Paintings to the West in the Era of
Port Openings: Representations of "Korean People" in the Collections
of Western Powers (in Korean with English translation as a handout).
Abstract (PDF, 26 KB)
10:40 – 11:20 Prof. Dr. Namwon Jang, Ewha Womans University
The Characteristics of Korean Ceramics Collected by the West in
Modern Times
Abstract (PDF, 28 KB)
11:20 – 12:00 Prof. Dr. Woothak Chung, Dongguk University
Painting of Water-Moon Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva in the Museo
d'Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone in Genova, Italy (in Korean with
English translation as a handout)
Abstract (PDF, 20 KB)
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch Break
13:30 – 14:50 Panel 4: Korean Art in the Modern and Contemporary Period
Chair: Prof. Dr. Hans Bjarne Thomsen, University of Zurich
13:30 – 14:10 Prof. Dr. Sunglim Kim, Dartmouth University
The Evolution of "Landscape Painting (Sansuhwa)" in Contemporary
Korean Art
Abstract (PDF, 32 KB)
14:10 – 14:50 Prof. Dr. Nancy Lin, Lawrence University
Exhibitions Abroad: Promoting a Master Narrative of Korean Art in
the Postwar Period
Abstract (PDF, 21 KB)
14:50 – 15:30 Coffee Break
15:30 – 18:10 Panel 5: Collectors and Collections, II
Chair: Alina Martimyanova, PhD Candidate, Section for East
Asian Art, UZH
15:30 – 16:10 Dr. Hyojin Lee, Heidelberg University
Arts, Diplomacy and History: Cultural Exchanges between Korea and
Sweden
Abstract (PDF, 25 KB)
16:10 – 16:50 Isabelle Leemann, Museum Coordinator, Museum of World Cultures,
Stockholm and
Michel Lee, Curator, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm
Tangible Memories and Intertwined Histories: Sweden-Korea
Relations as Seen through the Collection of the Museum of Far
Eastern Antiquities
Abstract (PDF, 20 KB)
16:50 – 17:30 Rosa Jiyun Kim, PhD Candidate, Section for East Asian
Art, University of Zurich
Collaborative Publications and Early Swiss Receptions of Korean
Culture
Abstract (PDF, 37 KB)
17:30 – 18:10 Natasha Fischer-Vaidya, PhD Candidate, Section for East Asian Art,
University of Zurich
Swiss Collectors of Korean Art: Dr. Paul Ritter and Dr. Heinrich von
Niederhäusern
Abstract (PDF, 22 KB)
18:10 – 18:20 Presentation by the Korea Foundation
18:45 ~ Dinner for speakers and staff
The symposium is organized by the Section for East Asian Art, University of Zurich and is supported by the Korea Foundation and the University of Zurich Foundation (Hochschulstiftung). The organizers also thank the Bern Historical Museum for their kind permission to use the image for the conference.
