BRITISH MUSEUM TO EXPLORE OVER 2,000 YEARS OF KOREAN ART AND CULTURE IN LANDMARK EXHIBITION

Major new exhibition Korea will be the British Museum’s first dedicated to Korean art and history in over 40 years with internationally acclaimed South Korean actor Lee Byung-hun appointed ambassador for the exhibition.

Photo Credit: Ten Symbols of Longevity 10-panel folding-screen © National Museum of Korea

Opening at the British Museum this week, a landmark new exhibition will explore more than 2,000 years of Korean art and culture, bringing together exceptional historic treasures alongside modern and contemporary works to tell the story of Korea’s extraordinary creative history.

Korea will be the first major exhibition at the British Museum dedicated to Korean art and history in over 40 years. Spanning from 300 BC to the present day, it will explore the creativity, resilience and technical skill that have shaped Korean art and culture across centuries, while revealing the enduring connections between the country’s past and present.

The exhibition opens at a moment of unprecedented international interest in Korean culture. Over recent decades, the Korean Wave, or hallyu, has transformed the global reach of South Korea’s cultural industries, with Korean music, film, television and popular culture finding enormous audiences around the world.

Internationally acclaimed South Korean actor Lee Byung-hun has been appointed ambassador for the exhibition, helping to introduce Korea to audiences in the UK and internationally and highlighting the depth of the country’s artistic heritage and its continuing influence on contemporary culture.

One of South Korea’s most internationally recognised actors, Lee Byung-hun has enjoyed a career spanning more than 30 years across Korean film and television and major international productions. His credits include Squid Game, Inside Men, Concrete Utopia, I Saw the Devil, A Bittersweet Life and Mr. Sunshine, alongside international films including The Magnificent Seven, G.I. Joe and Terminator Genisys. He also voices Demon King Gwi-Ma in the animated musical fantasy KPop Demon Hunters.

Photo Credit: Lee Byung-hun © BH Entertainment

Lee Byung-hun will also join Korean-Australian actress Yerin Ha, known for Bridgerton, Halo and Dune: Prophecy, to lend his voice to the exhibition’s audio tour. Both will provide exclusive commentary on a selection of highlighted objects. At the heart of Korea will be exceptional works from the collection of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee, following the donation of more than 23,000 objects from his collection to Korea’s national museums.

The exhibition will bring together seminal works, many designated National Treasures and Treasures, on loan from the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, alongside works from the British Museum. Tracing Korea’s artistic and cultural history chronologically, Korea will place historic national treasures alongside modern and contemporary works, creating a conversation across centuries and demonstrating how artists have continually revisited and reinterpreted the past.

Photo Credit: 'Sun, Moon and Five Peaks' 6-panel folding-screen © National Museum of Korea

Among the highlights will be bronze ritual implements dating from 300 - 100 BC and a 13th-century gourd-shaped celadon ewer, an exquisite example of the technical mastery of Goryeo ceramics, renowned for their luminous blue-green glaze and intricate decoration. Rare Buddhist paintings will demonstrate both spiritual devotion and artistic sophistication, while the restrained elegance of Joseon porcelain will reveal an aesthetic shaped by the period’s Confucian ideals.

A major highlight will be Jeong Seon’s Clearing after the Rain on Mount Inwang, a masterpiece of Korean landscape painting. Depicting Seoul’s Mount Inwang through rain-darkened ridgelines and drifting mist, the work represents a departure from the idealised imaginary landscapes favoured by many of Jeong Seon’s contemporaries. Instead, he depicted a recognisable Korean landscape with extraordinary atmosphere and emotional depth. The exhibition will continue into the modern and contemporary era with work by Nam June Paik, the visionary Korean artist widely regarded as a pioneer of video art.

Photo Credit: Jeong Seon (1676-1759), Clearing after rain on Mount Inwang, 1751, hanging scroll; ink on paper © National Museum of Korea (LKH1, National Treasure)

A new British Museum acquisition by internationally acclaimed artist Do Ho Suh will provide another key highlight, exploring themes of identity, migration and memory. Displayed alongside historic objects, the work will underline one of the exhibition’s central ideas: the continuing dialogue between Korea’s past and present and the ways in which cultural identity is continually reinterpreted.

Through ancient ritual objects, celebrated ceramics, painting and contemporary art, Korea will present a story of progression and change, adaptation and innovation, revealing how creativity and technical skill have defined Korean art and culture for more than two millennia.

At a time when Korean culture has never been more visible internationally, the exhibition will offer audiences an opportunity to discover the rich artistic heritage behind that global phenomenon and the centuries of creativity that continue to shape Korea today.

For tickets to see the Korea exhibition, visit https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/korea