Where: Santa Fe Community College
Cost: $150 Members $180 Non-Members for 3-Day Series
$60 Members $75 Non-Members for Single Day

On the Art, Culture and History of Korea

Seminar Program and Speakers

Monday, June 9 - 9:00 to 12:00 professor Bruce Cumings will speak.  Modern Korea emerged at the end of the 19th century only to be submerged by the Japanese, who colonized it in 1910.  In 1945 it split into two Koreas-North and South. Perhaps Germany is the only other country so profoundly affected first by hot war and then by the Cold War.  The Cold War ended nearly two decades ago, but persists on the Korean peninsula.  East Germany collapsed almost overnight, but North Korea remains as a museum of 20th century communism.  How this divided country, united for more than a millennium, will finally get reunified remains an issue for the 21st century.

1:00 to 2:30 pm: Professor Cumings and Dr. Cheeyun Kwon, Curator of the Koret Foundation Korean Galleries at the Asian Art Museum of Santa Francisco, will discuss and answer questions on contemporary Korea.  Questions from Professor Cumings’ morning presentation may be addressed during this discussion.

Professor Bruce Cumings is Head of the History Department at the University of Chicago, where his research and teaching focus on modern Korean history, 20th century international history, U.S.-Asian relations, East Asian political economy and American foreign relations.  Each of his two books on Korea have won awards; his recently completed book will be published by Yale University Press.  Professor Cumings is the editor of the modern volume of the Cambridge History of Korea (forthcoming) and, among other things, is a frequent contributor to various international magazines and reviews.  He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999 and has been the recipient of various fellowships. In 2003 he won the University of Chicago’s award for Excellence in Graduate Teachings.

Tuesday, June 10 - 9:00 to 12:00 Dr Cheeyun Kwon will speak.  Korea’s current role in international relations rests on 5,000 years of history.  This lecture will introduce the early traces of history, the several religious systems and the major historical events that helped shape the country.  The various artistic traditions that were born out of varied philosophical systems and beliefs will be discussed and the unique aesthetics evident in Korean painting, ceramic, and architectural tradition will be examined. Imagery, and graphics will be featured.

Wednesday, June 11 - 9:00 to 12:00 Dr Cheeyun Kwon will speak.  Today’s Korea is a modern society intermingled with traditional customs and a unique language system.  Ancestral memorial rituals, lunar festivals, Buddhist rituals, and Shamanic traditions coexist with modern societal values and systems.  One such system, Korea’s unique language and its contribution to modern Korea’s development, is among the themes to be discussed.  Again, imagery and graphics will support the presentation.

Dr. Cheeyun Kwon assumed the role of curator of the prestigious Koret Foundation Korean Galleries at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in early 2007.  The Museum’s collection of Korean art is among the finest in the world.  Dr. Kwon holds advanced degrees in East Asian and Korean art history from Princeton.  While working on her doctorate, she gained curatorial experience at the Smithsonian Institution.  After completing her Ph.D. she returned to Korea where she taught at Korean universities, emphasizing Korean and Buddhist art.  She has lectured widely and her work is published in art and history journals.

Suggested Reading

Contemporary History

• Bruce Cumings, Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History, Updated Edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.
• Roy Andrew Grinker, Korea and its Futures: Unification and the Unfinished War (New York: St. Martins Press, 1998)
• David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (New York: Hyperion, 2007)
  Selig Harrison, Korean Endgame: A Strategy for Reunification and U.S. Disengagement (Princeton University Press: 2003)

Arts and Culture

• Chung Yang-mo et al. Arts of Korea Ed. by Judith G. Smith. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998)
• Kim Hongnam et al. Splendor & Simplicity: Korean Arts of the Eighteenth Century (New York: Asia Society Galleries, 1993)
• Hiromitsu Washizuka et al. Transmitting the Forms of Divinity: Early Buddhist Art from Korea and Japan (New York: Japan Society, 2003)