During Korea’s drive for economic modernization, commercial artists created goods and advertisements that were visually appealing and richly detailed. After the war, Korea transformed itself economically, yet rapid growth was accompanied by dramatic social changes and political concerns surrounding authoritarianism. By the late 1980s, Korea had embraced democracy and a newly prosperous society clamored for fresh goods manufactured for domestic consumption. With the 1988 Olympic games, Korean products and adverts grew more global in orientation.
Koreans look upon these items with some nostalgia, as they stand in sharp and, at times, amusing contrast with today’s products, which range from remarkable paper-thin flatscreens to Motortrend’s Car of the Year. Presented with the support of the Korea Craft and Design Foundation, this exhibition features early consumer products, advertisements, and social commentary from a transitional and controversial era when the seeds of Korean design saw fertile ground.
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This exhibition is the first in the United States to focus on items associated with Korea’s export-led growth era. It features products and designs from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, including Korea’s first domestically manufactured radio (the Goldstar A-501), Korea’s first black-and-white television (the VD-19), rice dispensers, cookers, and other kitchen items—even the popular “Italy towel,” employed in homes and bathhouses for a rigorous scrub.
On December 10, 2010, The Korea Society hosted a panel discussion at the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta on the missionary experience in Korea. James T. Laney, former US ambassador to South Korea, led the panel, which included Donald Clark, professor of history at Trinity University, who gave an overview of the history of Christianity in Korea; William Brown, a son and grandson of Christan missionaries to Korea and China, who shared accounts written by missionaries in his family; and the Reverend George Wirth, senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, who suggested that American Christians have much to learn from Korean Presbyterians about church growth, management, and missionary work. The program was part of The Korea Society’s Korea Days regional outreach program in Atlanta, Georgia.
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).
