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'First Under Heaven': Korean Cermamics
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20312 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1992 |
1,667 Words |
| Author
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Robert D. Mowry
Robert D. Mowry is associate curator in charge of Asian art at
the Harvard University art museums and lecturer on Chinese and
Korean art in Harvard's Department of Fine Arts. |
Currently touring the United States is a not to be missed exhibition of later Korean ceramics titled The Radiance of Jade and the Clarity of Water: Korean Ceramics from the Ataka Collection. Drawn from the Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Osaka, Japan, the exhibition features 114 rare stonewares and porcelains of the highest quality from the Koriyo (918-1392) and Chosen (1392-1910) dynasties.
Through their millennia of cultural development, Korean artists have produced world-class examples of painting, calligraphy, sculpture, and lacquerware, but it is their ceramics for which they are best known (in both historical and modern times). The quality of their ceramics is such that Koryo-period celadons were admired even by the Chinese, who called them "first under heaven"--no small compliment, given their own achievements and standards. The Japanese, too, prized Korean ceramics and imported them in great quantity, especially in the Edo period (1614-1868), when they were favored for the tea ceremony.
Overshadowed by China and Japan, its large and powerful neighbors, Korea largely escaped the attention of Europeans and Americans until the twentieth century, with the result that its ceramic tradition is only now gaining recognition in the West. Among the finest exhibitions of Korean ceramics even to tour the United States, The Radiance of Jade and the Clarity of Water should awaken long-overdue interest and appreciation.
Begun in 1951, the Ataka Collection--from which The Radiance of Jade and the Clarity of Water comes--was assembled in just twenty years by Eiichi Ataka (born 1900), former head of the trading firm of Ataka and Company. Totaling 965 items, the collection comprises mainly Korean and Chinese ceramics (793 and 144 examples, respectively). Financial difficulties at Ataka and Company in 1975 led to its merger with C. Itoh & Co., Ltd., in 1977; management of the collection was entrusted to the Sumitomo Bank, the largest creditor authorized to handle the affairs of Ataka and Company. The twenty-one companies of the Sumitomo Group presented the collection to the city of Osaka, which established the Museum of Oriental Ceramics to house and maintain it. The elegant new museum opened its doors to the public in November 1982.
In collecting Korean ceramics, Ataka eschewed the robust but unglazed stonewares of the early eras, preferring instead the highly finished, Chinese-influenced, glazed wares of the later periods. He sought--and succeeded admirably in forming--a comprehensive collection that includes examples of all the major
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