Home » Archives » KoreanStudies » Re: cultural object circulation in the late Choson Dynasty query
| Re: cultural object circulation in the late Choson Dynasty query [message #11117] |
Wed, 29 September 2010 15:42  |
Frank_Hoffmann
Messages: 245
Registered: May 2013
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Thanks, Javier! And thanks Andre for brining this topic to the list.
I think there are many here who are interested in this topic.
My own impression is that the "art market" has been a topic on
jurnalistic art journals in Korea for decades, but always only the
contemporary art market. Only over the past 10 or 15 years is the
interest in research in the colonial and very late (late 19th century)
art market growing -- this goes hand in hand with the developing but
still very small field of art history in Korea, and the new academic
programs for art history. By now we do have a considerable number of
journal articles and some M.A. thesis dealing with the colonial period
art market, colleting, the Japanese (in Korea) and collection, etc.
But there seems still very little at all on the Chosŏn period "art
market" (this might indeed better be used in quotation marks when
discussing traditional Korea). Wonderful to hear that Shin Jiwon at
Berkeley is working on a related book! Not an easy task for sure, not
really much to "fall back on" in that area!
Javier Cha mentions the "Iunji 怡雲志" book (that's book #14) of Sŏ
Yu-ga's 16-book (chapter) Imwŏn kyŏngjeji 林園經濟志, also known as Imwŏn
simnyukchi 林園十六志. Sŏ's work is a typical sample for a work in the
tradition of East Asian lexicological knowledge and all the strings
attached to it (format, story-telling narrational strategies,
selection of themes and contents, quotations, connections to the
classics, historiographical approaches, etc.). On a side note, if you
read through mainstream publications of the past 20 years in the area
of Korean art, including modern art, you will still find lively traces
of this narrative tradition. Sŏ did freely incorporate and quote at
length the (famous) publications of his contemporaries or near
contemporaries, scholars of the Silhak School--for example Pak
Chi-wŏn's Yŏlha ilgi. The Imwŏn kyŏngjeji is therefore to be seen as a
kind of lexicological compilation of the latest knowledge of the times
(and that was at the time mostly the research produced by the Silhak
scholars). Not any different from contemporary publications in Europe,
this was global and all-inclusive lexical knowledge, anything from
world geography over agriculture to aesthetics and crafts. Book 14,
Iunji, deals with scholars' hobbies and culture, with flowers, birds,
perfumes, book printing and binding. Within this context also with
collecting, if you want to call it that. The entire work, the Imwŏn
kyŏngjeji, is basically written with the countryside scholar in mind,
educating him on what to do, what to get, etc. -- but also letting him
know about the latest agricultural techniques and reforms, and so on.
However, you won't get too much out of this text when wanting to
analyse teh art market, or better, as Andre Schmid put it in his mail,
"the circulation of cultural objects." ... I doubt (I may be wrong)
that there are particular texts that will allow rich insights in the
Chosŏn period art market. But before this, let me point you to an
article about the mentioned "Iunji" book:
TITLE: 『이운지』를 통해 본 조선 후기 사대부가의 생활 모습
BY: 신영주
IN: 漢文學報, 제13권 (2005), pp. 387-414
------
DOWNLOAD this as PDF:
http://www.woohan.or.kr/
- go to above URL
- click on "학회지 검색서비스"
- 한문학보 will already show in search pop-up window, just choose vol. 13, 2005
- click on "2" at bottom, for 2nd page
- click on PDF download link for the 신영주 article
------
Okay, here is what my hunch is--and maybe someone actually working on
the Chosŏn period art market / collecting / circulation of cultural
objects ... could jump in and say someting:
- First, it has been my impression that coming up with a meaningful
analysis of this wider topic, this will require looking at a large
variety of sources, including visual sources, trade records, diaries,
etc. Nobody before the 20th century would have been interested to take
on a topic such as "art market" or "collecting" in Korea--both terms
had little to no meaning at the time. You would therefore hardly find
any textual approach dealing with it. It would all be sources dealing
with this 'indirectly.'
- Second, please question the question: Javiar Cha wrote (this is NOT
meant as a criticism, just as a suggestion for a different approach):
"The former would entail the collection of precious objects for their
contemporary value (rare
books, paintings, treasures acquired domestically or imported from
China) and the latter would have more to do with collecting for the
sake of curiosity about the past (or the guwen notion of 'love of
antiquity')." -- To my ears, this sounds too much like Italian
Renaissance & Cosimo de Medici & patronate & collections & humanism.
That concept will not get us much further when looking at traditional
Korea, I think. The above approach seems misguided in that it does not
place collection within the pattern of traditional Korean society.
Maybe scholars dealing with the 19th and 18th centuries have a
different opinion. But so far my two cents worth.
Best,
Frank
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| Re: cultural object circulation in the late Choson Dynasty query [message #11125 is a reply to message #11117] |
Fri, 01 October 2010 06:56  |
Frank_Hoffmann
Messages: 245
Registered: May 2013
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Senior Member
Administrator |
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Post Scriptum:
We might as well put a date on the reappearance
in the interest in Koryô celadon in Korea: the
year 1908.
But let me first make this claim: neither in
China nor in Korea would anyone before the early
nineteen hundreds have had any interest in Koryô
ware. By then China and Korea had discovered
blue-whites (and Europe had), and after that they
were able to even produce fine glazed wares in
more than two colors, e.g. with red and blue and
yellowish-brownish tones. Why would anyone would
want to go back to those archaic greenish wares
once they could enjoy all those colors?
Much of the answer, I think, lies in the West--in
European aesthetics and tastes. This is not
exactly part of an elementary intro, so allow me
to bridge this a little with some bold examples:
When seeing in person the Before-and-After of the
mid-1980s Sistine Chapel restoration that turned
Michelangelo's gracefully stale and serious yet
already exciting frescoes into a Walt
Disney-esque version with bright and flashy
colors that even the Las Vegas remake can't
surpass, I was totally stunned.
Colors MORE impressive here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sistine_Chapel_ceiling_lef t.png
Stunned, because it had shattered my (and that of
most others in my and earlier generations)
concept of pretty much everything that was out
there in terms of "classical" aesthetics. A
couple of years later I had to digest the fact
that the old Greeks had actually also imitated
Walt Disney. Neither temple facades nor vases had
been plain marmor and/or whitish: new chemical
analysis and new reconstructions show that Walt
had been the mastermind behind it all.
In short: From some time after the Lutheran
reformation and until very recently, that is
during the centuries of the Protestant drive for
industrialization and modernization (in the
interpretation of Max Weber's The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, and also, of
course, in the spirit of Immanuel Wallerstein's
Modern World-System analysis, Europeans have
equated the monochrome and monotone, the
life-less, with the classics, our admirable
classics. The images to be published in your
Ilias edition would not have looked like Mickey
Mouse or The Pink Panther--they might have been
b/w lithographs or later b/w photos of some
color-less Greek statues or reliefs.
While 18th and 19th century Europe was so deeply
in love with its own monochrome/monotone
construction (rather than re-construction) of
classical Greece and Rome, it sure also enjoyed
the blue-white Chinawares and even the
multi-colored wares. So far for the "exotic"
Other. Yet, who would not also look for the
"classics" within the "exotic" East. The
"classics" would need to be, OF COURSE,
monochrome and monotone! It could hardly be
Walt-Disney-esque, not according to Max Weber,
they would not been classics then, not in the
pre-21st century understanding of classics. (We
Northern Europeans still think so today, in spite
of knowing better. Ask me.) Something like Koryô
celadon or later Chosôn period white wares would
fit the aesthetic bill.
Now you might say it's not the Europeans, it's
the Japanese. Right, yes. It certainly gets
somewhat complicated here, as many different
factors come into play--such as the fact that the
Japanese did have a long-standing aesthetic
preference (or at least strong appreciation) for
monochrome objects (of course not limited to
monochrome, but certainly a high acceptance).
While this is correct, the Japanese established
in their Western-inspired modernization process
institutions that were molded largely by the
concepts of European institutions. From uniforms
to art and crafts exhibitions, industrial
exhibitions, museums, collecting and collections,
etc., all and everything followed within this
modernization process. As you are also aware of,
we see parallel to this some back-to-the-roots
movement, the urge to strengthen Japanese
traditions and aesthetics--that already starts
with Okakura Tenshin who reinvented Japan's own
traditions and even brought Nihonga to places as
far away as India, and it ends with the Greater
East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in the 1940s. In
very many cases, without wanting to simplify this
too much, we see in this process a replacement of
certain objects of desire by other objects of
desire (as collector's items) within the same or
a very similar institutional (originally
European) framework. The very interesting point
here is, that, while the objects are replaced,
many of the formal and aesthetic attributes do
not get replaced. Koryô celadons are a great
example of exactly this; they have all the
attributes a European collector wanted to see:
classic antiquity, monochrome color, rareness,
done in lost technique, symbolizing a lost high
culture.
From the Korean point of view: Koryô wares start
to become of interest again when the
modernization process seriously begins in Korea.
Before the early 1880s the term "misul" (art)
does not exist in Korea, and it is not really
being used much until the 1900s. After that we
have "arts and crafts" and we have crafts
exhibitions, as crafts are an important part of
the Western modernization process:
1893: Columbian Exposition in Chicago (with Korean participation)
1900: Exposition Universelle in Paris (with Korean participation)
1907: National (Korean) Fair in Hansông (Seoul)
1907: National Inheritance School for the
Industry established in Hansông (Seoul)
1908: Hansông Fine Arts Factory established by
the royal government to substitute
for the Punwôn which had heretofore been in
charge of producing crafts for
the royal family and the palace, thus replacing the traditional crafts
production with a modern manufactory that would produce modern designed
items (the royal Toan-sil, Dept. of Design,
was now actually located inside
that factory).
1909: construction of the Yi Royal Museum (Yi
Wang-ga Museum) in Hansông (Seoul)
1912: opening of the Yi Royal Museum
... and so on
Please note that at the time (same as in Europe
and the U.S.) "arts" and "crafts" went usually
hand in hand, and so we do not only talk about
the EXHIBITION of existing art work, or whatever
we consider art, but also about the PRODUCTION of
arts and crafts, and the exhibition of methods
showing how arts and crafts are being produced.
(This was before the invention of terms like
outsourcing.)
In this connection we see that the production of
porcelain and other wares becomes profitable
again, and in 1907 and 1908 we see one American
and several Japanese manufacturies and kilns
opening production around Korea--some of the
Japanese brand names are still known today in
this industry ... and yes, it was an "industry"
now, an industrial production. Also in 1908 in
P'yôngyang a porcelain manufactury gets opened by
some Korean entrepreneurs, the P'yôngyang Chagi
Chejojusik Hoesa gets established there (note the
"-jusik" part). Wall Street comes to P'yôngyang.
That company produced all kind of wares, mostly
for the Japanese market, and remakes of antique
celadons are also part of their program (not
really sure about Koryô porcelains at this time
though, before 1910).
Kyôngsang Pangnamhoejang, 1907 (entrance)
Yi Royal Museum, 1912
Sorry to be so lengthy & bold,
Frank
--
--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws
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| Re: cultural object circulation in the late Choson Dynasty query [message #11134 is a reply to message #11125] |
Sun, 03 October 2010 21:59 |
Werner Sasse
Messages: 71
Registered: November 2001
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Member |
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Sorry to be so lengthy & bold," NO: GREAT! Werner
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2010 03:56:24 -0700
To: koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws
From: hoffmann@koreaweb.ws
Subject: Re: [KS] cultural object circulation in the late Choson Dynasty query
Post Scriptum:
We might as well put a date on the reappearance in the interest in Koryô celadon in Korea: the year 1908.
But let me first make this claim: neither in China nor in Korea would anyone before the early nineteen hundreds have had any interest in Koryô ware. By then China and Korea had discovered blue-whites (and Europe had), and after that they were able to even produce fine glazed wares in more than two colors, e.g. with red and blue and yellowish-brownish tones. Why would anyone would want to go back to those archaic greenish wares once they could enjoy all those colors?
Much of the answer, I think, lies in the West--in European aesthetics and tastes. This is not exactly part of an elementary intro, so allow me to bridge this a little with some bold examples:
When seeing in person the Before-and-After of the mid-1980s Sistine Chapel restoration that turned Michelangelo's gracefully stale and serious yet already exciting frescoes into a Walt Disney-esque version with bright and flashy colors that even the Las Vegas remake can't surpass, I was totally stunned.
Colors MORE impressive here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sistine_Chapel_ceiling_lef t.png
Stunned, because it had shattered my (and that of most others in my and earlier generations) concept of pretty much everything that was out there in terms of "classical" aesthetics. A couple of years later I had to digest the fact that the old Greeks had actually also imitated Walt Disney. Neither temple facades nor vases had been plain marmor and/or whitish: new chemical analysis and new reconstructions show that Walt had been the mastermind behind it all.
In short: From some time after the Lutheran reformation and until very recently, that is during the centuries of the Protestant drive for industrialization and modernization (in the interpretation of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, and also, of course, in the spirit of Immanuel Wallerstein's Modern World-System analysis, Europeans have equated the monochrome and monotone, the life-less, with the classics, our admirable classics. The images to be published in your Ilias edition would not have looked like Mickey Mouse or The Pink Panther--they might have been b/w lithographs or later b/w photos of some color-less Greek statues or reliefs.
While 18th and 19th century Europe was so deeply in love with its own monochrome/monotone construction (rather than re-construction) of classical Greece and Rome, it sure also enjoyed the blue-white Chinawares and even the multi-colored wares. So far for the "exotic" Other. Yet, who would not also look for the "classics" within the "exotic" East. The "classics" would need to be, OF COURSE, monochrome and monotone! It could hardly be Walt-Disney-esque, not according to Max Weber, they would not been classics then, not in the pre-21st century understanding of classics. (We Northern Europeans still think so today, in spite of knowing better. Ask me.) Something like Koryô celadon or later Chosôn period white wares would fit the aesthetic bill.
Now you might say it's not the Europeans, it's the Japanese. Right, yes. It certainly gets somewhat complicated here, as many different factors come into play--such as the fact that the Japanese did have a long-standing aesthetic preference (or at least strong appreciation) for monochrome objects (of course not limited to monochrome, but certainly a high acceptance). While this is correct, the Japanese established in their Western-inspired modernization process institutions that were molded largely by the concepts of European institutions. From uniforms to art and crafts exhibitions, industrial exhibitions, museums, collecting and collections, etc., all and everything followed within this modernization process. As you are also aware of, we see parallel to this some back-to-the-roots movement, the urge to strengthen Japanese traditions and aesthetics--that already starts with Okakura Tenshin who reinvented Japan's own traditions and even brought Nihonga to places as far away as India, and it ends with the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in the 1940s. In very many cases, without wanting to simplify this too much, we see in this process a replacement of certain objects of desire by other objects of desire (as collector's items) within the same or a very similar institutional (originally European) framework. The very interesting point here is, that, while the objects are replaced, many of the formal and aesthetic attributes do not get replaced. Koryô celadons are a great example of exactly this; they have all the attributes a European collector wanted to see: classic antiquity, monochrome color, rareness, done in lost technique, symbolizing a lost high culture.
From the Korean point of view: Koryô wares start to become of interest again when the modernization process seriously begins in Korea. Before the early 1880s the term "misul" (art) does not exist in Korea, and it is not really being used much until the 1900s. After that we have "arts and crafts" and we have crafts exhibitions, as crafts are an important part of the Western modernization process:
1893: Columbian Exposition in Chicago (with Korean participation)
1900: Exposition Universelle in Paris (with Korean participation)
1907: National (Korean) Fair in Hansông (Seoul)
1907: National Inheritance School for the Industry established in Hansông (Seoul)
1908: Hansông Fine Arts Factory established by the royal government to substitute
for the Punwôn which had heretofore been in charge of producing crafts for
the royal family and the palace, thus replacing the traditional crafts
production with a modern manufactory that would produce modern designed
items (the royal Toan-sil, Dept. of Design, was now actually located inside
that factory).
1909: construction of the Yi Royal Museum (Yi Wang-ga Museum) in Hansông (Seoul)
1912: opening of the Yi Royal Museum
... and so on
Please note that at the time (same as in Europe and the U.S.) "arts" and "crafts" went usually hand in hand, and so we do not only talk about the EXHIBITION of existing art work, or whatever we consider art, but also about the PRODUCTION of arts and crafts, and the exhibition of methods showing how arts and crafts are being produced. (This was before the invention of terms like outsourcing.)
In this connection we see that the production of porcelain and other wares becomes profitable again, and in 1907 and 1908 we see one American and several Japanese manufacturies and kilns opening production around Korea--some of the Japanese brand names are still known today in this industry ... and yes, it was an "industry" now, an industrial production. Also in 1908 in P'yôngyang a porcelain manufactury gets opened by some Korean entrepreneurs, the P'yôngyang Chagi Chejojusik Hoesa gets established there (note the "-jusik" part). Wall Street comes to P'yôngyang. That company produced all kind of wares, mostly for the Japanese market, and remakes of antique celadons are also part of their program (not really sure about Koryô porcelains at this time though, before 1910).
Kyôngsang Pangnamhoejang, 1907 (entrance)
Yi Royal Museum, 1912
Sorry to be so lengthy & bold,
Frank
--
--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws
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