A selection of Korean antiquities donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in 2021 by Dr. Chester Chang, an old-timer and philanthropist in Southern California’s Korean-American community, will be on view to the public from February 25 through June 30.
LACMA announced on February 6 that ‘Korean Treasures’, an exhibition focusing on the initial collection donated by Dr. Chang and his son, Dr. Cameron Chang, M.D., will open at LACMA’s Resnick Pavilion starting on February 25.
LACMA will present 35 objects, including traditional Korean secular and religious paintings, calligraphy, rare mid-20th century oil paintings from North and South Korea, and ceramics from the Goryeo (918-1392) and Joseon (1392-1897) dynasties.
The exhibition is curated by Stephen Little, the museum’s head of Chinese, Korean, and South & Southeast Asian Department.
Chang previously said in an interview with the Korea Daily in October 2021 that he would donate to LACMA more than 1,000 Korean antiquities including ones painted during the Joseon Dynasty and by two of the most prominent painters in Korean modern art history, Jung-seob Lee and Su-geun Park.
For about two years after his decision, LACMA has been working to move the donated artworks, which were stored in Chang’s home, into storage.
“Dr. Chang’s collection is the largest gift of Korean art in the museum’s history,” LACMA explained in a press release.
The works on display were selected from 100 works of Asian art donated earlier by Chang in 2021, the museum added, noting that the collection consists primarily of Korean paintings, calligraphy, sculpture, ceramics, lacquer furniture, and other works of art dating from the Three Kingdoms of Korea period to the 20th century. It stressed that most of the works in the collection have been in the possession of Dr. Chang’s family for a century and have never been exhibited publicly.
BY NICOLE CHANG, HOONSIK WOO [chang.nicole@koreadaily.com]
