Elizabeth Keith, an intrepid traveler and visionary artist, first ventured to Asia almost a century ago, where she filled travel journals with lively, realistic sketches of Korea and other destinations. At the encouragement of a Japanese publisher, she translated her sketches and watercolors into etchings and woodblock prints. As author of Eastern Windows (1928) and Old Korea (1946), Keith sought to capture a “vanishing Korea,” and her work remains especially relevant today as a view into the Korea of her age.
Accompanying the woodblock prints, etchings, and watercolors on display is an array of traditional hats from the period. From horsehair to bamboo, the materials employed by the contemporaneous Korean artisans add context and texture to Keith’s work. The hats served to connote the wearer’s status, a theme also examined in Keith’s work.
The headpieces are on loan from the Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum, Korean Art and Antiques, and the collection of Lea Sneider.
The Elizabeth Keith woodblock prints, etchings and watercolor are on loan from the collection of Young-Dahl Song. The attendant photos and postcards are from the collection of Norman Thorpe.
Thursday, October 14
The Korea Society kicks off a rich autumn season of performing arts with percussionist Vongku Pak on traditional drum, or changgu, Eddy Jo Martinez on guitar, and Jorge Mesa on bass. This scintillating trio will perform a sizzling hour of rhythms, beats, and blues to mark this fall’s G20 leaders summit in Seoul. Come celebrate Korea—a crossroads of music and meeting place for world leaders—with this soulful summit salute. Pak opens with Sulganggo, a Korean hour-glass drum solo to “call the world to Korea,” followed by a blend of kutkǒri, ch’ilch’ae, and jajinmori rhythms.
The Korea Society is delighted to invite you to participate in our 20th Annual Van Fleet Memorial Benefit Golf Tournament to be held on Monday, October 18, 2010 at the prestigious Alpine Country Club in Demarest, New Jersey. As we celebrate the tournament’s 20th anniversary, we hope to make this our most successful golf tournament yet. It will be a great opportunity for our members, friends and sponsors to join together for a day of golf while they show their support for our programs.
“…It would speak to the seasons.” Join us for a rich evening of time circling through the elegant sounds of Rami Seo’s kayagǔm. Powerful at times, passive at others, Ms. Seo’s stringed wonder takes us from spring through summer, to autumn’s passing and wintry embrace…and back again to spring. Relax amid the contemplative sounds and relish the rich history of the kayagǔm.
Join us as Theresa Ki-ja Kim, professor emeritus of theater arts at SUNY Stony Brook, discusses how Korea’s unique tradition of masked dance-dramas masterfully blended fertility rite, social satire, and popular entertainment. Held in conjunction with the exhibition, Masks of Night: Faces from Traditional Korean Dance-Dramas, Kim’s gallery talk will introduce the masked dance-drama, a form of performance that included songs, dances, and dialogues that aimed to satirize the local nobility (yangban) and promote fertility. Her talk will also examine how masked dance-dramas performed at the Korean royal court and throughout the countryside evolved from ancient shamanic rituals into a form of popular theater that helped release the pent-up social frustration generated by the rigid Confucian norms of the Chosŏn kingdom (1392-1910).
