Precious Beyond Measure: A History of Korean Ceramics
This is the annual Sir Michael Butler Memorial Lecture
The lecture will draw on the authors’ 2024 book introducing Korean ceramics from the neolithic to the present day. Since Godfrey Gompertz’s 1968 Korean Pottery and Porcelain of the Yi Period there have been no standalone monographs about Korean ceramics in English, published in the West for general readers. Despite a number of excellent exhibition catalogues introducing particular collections and themes, there has been a persistent call for an introduction to the subject for non-specialists, one that incorporates the exciting research discoveries made in Korea. The intention is to set Korean ceramic history, which spans thousands of years, in a context that is meaningful to readers who are not familiar with Korean culture and history.
Building on long experience as curators at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the authors have leaned heavily on these two collections, and on those of the Fitzwilliam and Ashmolean Museums, in an effort to connect their book to displays and collections accessible to people in Britain. Many of the book’s 208 illustrations are from UK collections and there are also images of pieces in Korean, North American and Japanese collections. While earlier studies of Korean ceramics have often focussed on a particular period, and have chosen to see pre-modern and contemporary ceramics as separate fields, Precious Beyond Measure includes a substantial section about 20th and 21st century Korean ceramics, again foregrounding work collected at the BM and the V&A. Unusually, images of ceramics in and from North Korea are included, reflecting the authors’ desire to draw attention to the artistic and culture output of the entire Korean peninsula.
The lecture will present some key themes covered in the book, and will suggest future areas for research and study of the subject.
Image:
Offering dish by Kim Yik-Yung, born 1935.
Porcelain, height 17.5 cm, made 1992.
Speakers
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Jane PortalJane Portal is Acting Director of Collections and former Keeper of Asia at the British Museum. Her publications include Arts of Korea- MFA Highlights (2012) written while she was at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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Beth McKillopBeth McKillop is a senior research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and a former president of the OCS. Her publications include Korean Art and Design (1992).
