Join us for a free one-day workshop for educators at the Japanese American National Museum, hosted by the USC U.S.-China Institute and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. This workshop will include a guided tour of the beloved exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community, slated to close permanently in January 2025. Following the tour, learn strategies for engaging students in the primary source artifacts, images, and documents found in JANM’s vast collection and discover classroom-ready resources to support teaching and learning about the Japanese American experience.
Mother-of-Pearl Lacquerware from Korea
Asian Art Museum invites you to learn about luminous Korean mother-of-pearl lacquerware with the first U.S. exhibition devoted to this time-honored tradition.
Where
On a background of sleek lacquer, mother-of-pearl illuminates intricate flowers, swirling leaves and birds poised to fly. This ornate art has been practiced in Korea for over a thousand years, but it hasn’t been extensively studied or displayed in the United States. Now, learn about luminous Korean mother-of-pearl lacquerware with the first U.S. exhibition devoted to this time-honored tradition. Through 30 radiant objects, many on view for the first time, you’ll discover the painstaking techniques used to create a flawless, gleaming surface filled with almost microscopic details. You’ll also get a close-up look at abalone shell, the stunning natural phenomenon that gives these works their iridescent luster. And an in-gallery video will share the conservation procedures that preserve the art’s beauty and integrity.
The works featured in this exhibition are mostly drawn from the museum’s collection, in addition to objects on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A related display of five contemporary artworks of various mediums is on display in the adjacent Korean art galleries. Influenced by traditional Korean mother-of-pearl lacquerware, these works demonstrate the vitality of this vibrant art form today.
At the Asian Art Museum, we’re longtime leaders in Korean art. The first Western art museum to establish a Korean department with a dedicated full-time curator, we have a distinguished history of presenting groundbreaking Korean exhibitions. With Mother-of-Pearl Lacquerware from Korea, we continue our commitment to advancing international scholarship in this important field.
Be sure to check out our exhibitions of Chinese and Japanese lacquerware, on view now.
Read even more in our 2008 publication The Conservation of Asian Lacquer: Case Studies at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Download
Featured Articles
Please join us for the Grad Mixer! Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC Annenberg. Graduate students from any field are welcome to join, so it is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with IR/foreign policy-related research topics and interests.
RSVP link: https://forms.gle/1zer188RE9dCS6Ho6
Events
Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow international students.
Join us for an in-person conversation on Thursday, November 7th at 4pm with author David M. Lampton as he discusses his new book, Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. The book examines the history of U.S.-China relations across eight U.S. presidential administrations.