KOREA FOUNDATION

A Korean ceramic bowl at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art

Located in Washington, DC, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is committed to preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting exemplary works of Asian art. It was established when Charles Lang Freer, an American industrialist known as the “King of the Railroad,” donated a huge collection of Asian artworks to the US government.

An underground exhibition space connects the museum’s Freer Gallery of Art to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, which has a collection of over 10,000 Asian artworks.

The Freer Gallery of Art currently possesses 540 important Korean art objects. Most of the items are ceramic works, but there also are prehistoric artifacts and a couple of Buddhist paintings. Most of the Korean collection was purchased by Charles Lang Freer in the early 1890s, and the collection has grown either through donations or purchases over the past decades.

Among the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery’s Korean collection are a few prehistoric artifacts, one Buddhist painting from the Goryeo Dynasty, and artworks by contemporary artists Do Ho Suh and Lee Ufan.

Almost all the items in the National Museum of Asian Art’s Korean collections can be viewed online: http://korean-ceramics.asia.si.edu

The Freer Gallery of Art Korean art objects Charles Lang Freer