Korea in Transition: Late 19th-Century Art in the Peabody Essex Museum Collection [In Person]

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 explore how the 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.