뉴스레터

Kansong (澗松) Jeon Hyeong-pil (全鎣弼, 1906-1962) was someone who prevented Korea's cultural heritage such as Goryeo celadon, Joseon porcelain, Buddhist sculptures dating back to the period of the three kingdoms, and books printed in rare types from falling into the hands of the Japanese during Japan's occupation of Korea. He came into a rich inheritance as a junior in college when his father passed away in 1929. Although he became one of the forty richest men in Joseon at the age of twenty-three, he didn't start his own business or choose to live a life of leisure.

Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil was someone who considered collecting cultural assets as a sort of "cultural movement for independence" that could preserve his nation's pride and dignity. That is why he invested a hefty amount of his wealth and youth into becoming a collector to ensure that invaluable cultural assets his ancestors left behind would remain in their home country. Moreover, if there was a cultural asset that had already been handed over to the Japanese and was worth retrieving, he made sure it came back to Korea no matter how much it cost to do so. To preserve all the cultural assets he managed to collect, he built a state-of-the-art museum in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul in 1937 and named it Bohwagak (葆華閣), which means "a house that holds shining treasures." That was the very first private museum in Korea, which is now known as the Kansong Art Museum.

From the Haerye of Hunminjeongeum to Hyewon's Genre Paintings

The item Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil had been most proud of and treasured dearly was a copy of the Haerye (解例), or commentaries, of Hunminjeongeum (訓民正音), which contains King Sejong's promulgation of the Korean alphabet Hangeul. As the manuscript's only remaining copy, Kansong paid a sum worth ten houses to acquire it, which later became a national treasure of Korea (no. 70). It is also the very copy featured in the hand of Sejong the Great's statue at Gwanghwamun square in central Seoul. The manuscript was authored by scholars from Jiphyeonjeon, also known as the Hall of Worthies, and offers an explanation and examples of the Korean alphabet Hangeul after King Sejong invented it. For being the only book in the history of mankind to explain the use of a language after its creation, this Haerye edition of Hunminjeongeum was inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World register in October 1997.

The Kansong Art Museum's collection holds many works from the Joseon era that are significant to studying the history of Korean art. For example, there is the work of Gyeomjae Jeong Seon, who developed the Jingyeong sansuhwa (眞景山水畵) style of true-view landscape painting, as well as other superb artists such as Danwon Kim Hong-do and Sim Sa-jeong.

Among those considered the highlight of Korean paintings in the museum's collection are Hyewon Shin Yun-bok's Miindo, also known as a Portrait of a Beauty, and the thirty genre paintings inside the "Hyewon Pungsok hwacheop," an album of Hyewon's works that is now a national treasure of Korea. These works used to be on sale at an antique shop in Osaka, Japan until Kansong went there and paid a sum worth 25 houses or at least 7.5 billion Korean Won in today's terms to purchase and bring them back to Korea.

Since becoming designated as National Treasure no. 135 after Korea's liberation, the "Hyewon Pungsok hwacheop" went on a tour of "Korea's National Treasures" exhibited at eight cities in the United States including Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles between December 1957 and June 1959. At the time, the work was featured and highly praised in the February 9, 1958 edition of the New York Times.

Goryeo Celadons Retrieved with Great Determination and Affection

Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil also made considerable efforts to collect celadons that were too costly for other Joseon collectors to dare think of acquiring. In 1935, he paid a price worth 20 houses (around 6 billion Korean Won in today's terms) for a c​e​l​a​d​o​n​ inlaid with 69 cranes​ called "Cheongja unhak sanggam mun maebyeong," which became National Treasure no. 68. Counted as one of the most beautiful pieces of Goyreo celadon, the vase earned the nickname "Cheonhak maebyeong" for presenting the illusion of a thousand cranes flying up into the sky when twirled around in one hand. This piece was wonderfully praised by many in Europe when it took part in the exhibit of Korean treasures that toured Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Denmark between 1961 and 1962.

In 1937, Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil heard news of a British collector named John Gadsby living in Japan preparing to sell twenty pieces of Goryeo celadons that had taken two decades to collect. After much negotiating over several trips between Korea and Japan, Kansong managed to bring all of them back to their home country by paying a price worth 400 houses, or about 120 billion Korean Won in today's terms. Seven of those Goryeo celadons acquired back then became designated as either national treasures or treasures of Korea after its liberation. They are National Treasure no. 65, the Celadon Incense Burner with a Giraffe-shaped Lid, National Treasure no. 66, the C​e​l​a​d​o​n​ ​K​u​n​d​i​k​a​ ​w​i​t​h​ ​I​n​l​a​i​d​ ​W​i​l​l​o​w​,​ ​L​o​t​u​s​,​ ​R​e​e​d​,​ ​a​n​d​ ​M​a​n​d​a​r​i​n​ ​D​u​c​k​ ​D​e​s​i​g​n, National Treasure no. 74, the C​e​l​a​d​o​n​ ​D​u​c​k​-​s​h​a​p​e​d​ ​W​a​t​e​r​ ​D​r​o​p​p​e​r, National Treasure no. 720, the C​e​l​a​d​o​n​ ​W​a​t​e​r​ ​D​r​o​p​p​e​r​ ​i​n​ ​t​h​e​ ​S​h​a​p​e​ ​o​f​ ​M​o​t​h​e​r​ ​a​n​d​ ​B​a​b​y​ ​M​o​n​k​e​y​s, T​r​e​a​s​u​r​e​ ​no​.​ 2​3​8​, the W​h​i​t​e​ ​P​o​r​c​e​l​a​i​n​ ​I​n​c​e​n​s​e​ ​B​u​r​n​e​r​ ​w​i​t​h​ ​a​ ​L​i​d​ ​i​n​ ​t​h​e​ ​S​h​a​p​e​ ​o​f​ ​B​a​k​s​a​n​ ​M​o​u​n​t​a​i​n, T​r​e​a​s​u​r​e​ ​no​.​ 2​86, the C​e​l​a​d​o​n​ ​P​r​u​n​u​s​ ​V​a​s​e​ ​w​i​t​h​ ​I​n​l​a​i​d​ ​G​r​a​p​e​s​ ​a​n​d​ ​C​h​i​l​d​ ​D​e​s​i​g​n, and T​r​e​a​s​u​r​e​ ​no​.​ 349, the C​e​l​a​d​o​n​ ​L​i​d​d​e​d​ ​B​o​w​l​ ​S​e​t​ ​w​i​t​h​ ​I​n​l​a​i​d​ ​C​h​r​y​s​a​n​t​h​e​m​u​m​,​ ​P​e​o​n​y​,​ ​a​n​d​ ​S​c​r​o​l​l​ ​D​e​s​i​g​n.

Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil exercised decisiveness and affection for his compatriots amid a throng of Japanese collectors when it came to collecting cultural heritages and their value was duly recognized after Korea's liberation. Out of his collection, twelve items were designated as national treasures of Korea, ten as treasures of Korea, four as cultural heritages of Seoul, and the remaining five thousand or so items in the collection are all considered by scholars as incredibly essential to Korea's cultural history. This is why many refer to Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil as the "guardian of Korea's cultural heritages," and the Kansong Art Museum as the "treasure trove of Korean cultural heritages."

While devising plans for an even larger museum in 1962, Kansong was suddenly taken ill and subsequently passed away after sustaining a painful fight against the disease. He never lived to see the Kansong Art Museum become open to the public. With help several art historians and Choi Soon-woo, a former student of Kansong and the head of the National Museum of Korea's fine arts division, Kansong's family who survived him was able to complete a preliminary sort through the collection. By 1966, the art historian Choi Wan-soo, who used to work as a researcher at the National Museum of Korea, was brought in to lead a full-scale organization and a series of academic studies on Kansong's collection.

Each May and October between the fall of 1971 and 2013, the Kansong Art Museum regularly held two week-long exhibitions of its collection. However, it became increasingly difficult for the museum's building built in the 1930s to facilitate its many visitors who had to wait in long lines for hours to appreciate its collection. Hence, the museum has begun to hold thematic exhibitions at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza instead since 2014. For the year of 2016, it is hosting the "Figures in Genre Paintings" until the 28th of August to show the changes that occurred to figures depicted in genre paintings through about 80 works by 33 different artists including Gyeomjae Jeong Seon, Danwon Kim Hong-do, and Hyewon Shin Yun-bok.