Photo: David Brichford
This eight-panel folding screen, a late 1800s example of Korean “Chaekgeori,” makes one observer think of a kind of instagram photo popular today. The screen was displayed in a recent Cleveland Museum of Art exhibition.
Some people call instagram pictures of their beautifully appointed bookshelves “shelfies.” They might think the fad is a 21st C. idea, but in 18th C. Korea, something similar was going on.
Claire Voon writes about the Cleveland Museum of Art’s recent chaekgeori exhibit at the website Hyperallergic.
“You could call it a very early precursor to the ‘shelfie.’ Long before we were snapping pictures of our bookshelves to show off our literary troves on the ‘gram, there was chaekgeori, a style of Korean still-life painting that emerged in the late 18th century. Spread across the panels of folded screens, these images of near-life-size bookshelves were also meant to express an individual’s intellect, and often stood in a scholar’s room as a beautiful, dignifying backdrop.
“More broadly, they were markers of one’s social status, putting on full view the objects of refined taste and affluence. Chaekgeori (pronounced check-oh-ree) literally means ‘books and things.’ Aside from tomes stacked on tomes on tomes, these massive paintings also featured writing tools, luxury goods from abroad, and gourmet delicacies, all neatly arranged. …
“The interest in depicting bookshelves grew under the reign of King Jeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty, between 1776 and 1800, and flourished through the early 20th century. As Sooa McCormick, the museum’s assistant curator of Korean art explained, Jeongjo [began] commissioning chaekgeori as a royal emblem to display around his royal throne. …
“ ‘Books became a symbol of high social status and power,’ McCormick told Hyperallergic. … ‘Learned individuals made up a very, very small percent of the population.’ …
“In a few instances, screens also included Western objects: one of the paintings on view [in Cleveland] boasts a rare depiction of European mechanical clocks — a subtle yet significant record of the kinds of cultural exchanges that occurred during this period.
” ‘When historians look at ancient, premodern Korea, they often describe Korea as “a hermit kingdom” — as if Korea never really interacted with the bigger world,’ McCormick said. ‘But when you look at these works, you see that Koreans traveled to Beijing, and that European materials were also introduced to Korean audiences at the time.”
More at Hyperallergic, here. (This lead came from twitter.)
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 