Courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum |
Peabody Essex Museum’s Korean art collection, comprising nearly 2,000 works, offers a distinctive lens on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Korea—a period marked by reform, global encounter, and artistic transition. Anchored by objects from the first Korean diplomatic delegation to the United States in 1883 and Korea’s participation in the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, the collection reveals how late Joseon art responded to shifting political realities, foreign contact, and emerging modern sensibilities. Initiated under Director Edward Sylvester Morse and enriched through donations by early travelers between Korea and the United States, including the new PEM Korean gallery’s namesake Yu Kil-Chun, the collection tells intertwined stories of continuity and transition.
Jiyeon Kim, Curator of Korean Art and Culture at PEM, will present key highlights from the collection, such as the recently conserved Welcoming Banquet of the Governor of Pyeongan folding screen and an eighteenth-century court bridal robe. This lecture will explore how late 19th-century Joseon adapted courtly traditions and responded to new popular demands, while also considering the global interactions and human connections forged across the ocean at a pivotal moment in Korean history.
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Korea in Transition: Late 19th-Century Art in the Peabody Essex Museum Collection
Tuesday, March 24, 2026 | 6:30 PM (EDT)
The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017
About the Speaker:
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Jiyeon Kim is the Curator of Korean Art and Culture at the Peabody Essex Museum. She led the development of PEM’s new Korean Art Gallery, which opened in May 2025, and co-curated Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams. She earned her Ph.D. in Korean Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed postdoctoral research at Columbia University. |
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