Land of Morning Calm:
An Exhibition of Contemporary Korean Metal and Fiber Art

Exhibition Statement

Beautifully formed, richly decorated, colorful, and finely articulated art works grace a Korean exhibit which toured the United States and Canada through mid-1992. The Land of Morning Calm: An Exhibition of Contemporary Korean Metal and Fiber Art consisted of sixty-six works by forty-seven Korean artists. The artists were selected by Dr. Kyung Sung Lee, Director of the National Museum of Modern Art in Seoul, Korea. From those artists’ works, the specific pieces included in the exhibit were selected by Michael Monroe, Curator in Charge at the Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Several of the distinguished artists, born and educated in Korea, have received further education in the United States and other countries. Some have exhibited, lectured, and conducted workshops internationally as well. Yet their art remains influenced by a common heritage. Present in their works are concepts of orderliness and simplicity combined with a sensitivity to nature. These objects, exquisitely and often delicately formed, are subtle in concept and detail.

These Korean artists employed a variety of different materials such as felt, cotton, hemp, leather, straw, silver, copper, enamel, stone, and gold in creating a wide range of visual and tactile forms. Jewelry, smaller-scaled sculpture, and vessels contrast with and complement tapestries, environmental constructions, felt collages, and woven material in an array of innovative techniques and designs.

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