Thursday, June 27, 7–8 PM

Korean Treasures from the Chester and Cameron Chang Collection lecture and exhibition walkthrough

Join GYOPO at the Korean Treasures exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, before it closes on June 30th! Our special evening at LACMA will begin with a short slide lecture, followed by a walkthrough with curator Stephen Little.

Korean Treasures from the Chester and Cameron Chang Collection is a selection of works drawn from the largest gift of Korean art in the museum’s history. In 2021, the museum announced the acquisition of an initial major gift of 100 works of Asian art from Dr. Chester Chang and Dr. Cameron C. Chang (MD). The collection consists primarily of Korean paintings, calligraphy, sculpture, ceramics, lacquers, furniture, and other works of art ranging in date from the Three Kingdoms Period (c. 57 BCE–668 CE) to the 20th century. The bulk of the works in this collection has remained within a single family for a century and has never publicly been on view. Organized chronologically and by material, this exhibition presents 35 donated and promised gifts, including traditional Korean secular and religious paintings, calligraphies, rare mid-20th-century oil paintings from both North and South Korea, and ceramics of the Goryeo (918–1392) and Joseon (1392–1897) dynasties.

Chester Chang (Chang Jung Ki), a former LACMA trustee, was born in Seoul in 1939; he and his son Cameron are descended, through Chester’s mother, Min Byeongyoon, from the family of Queen Min (1851–1895), the last queen of the Joseon dynasty (known posthumously as Empress Myeongseong).

This exhibition is curated by Stephen Little, Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art and Department Head, Chinese, Korean, and South and Southeast Asian Art.

Stephen Little (he/him)
An authority on East Asian art, Stephen Little grew up in Southeast Asia and the Near East. He received his BA from Cornell University (1975), MA from UCLA (1977), and PhD from Yale University (1987). He served as Curator of Chinese Art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (1977–1982) and the Cleveland Museum of Art (1987– 1989); Curator of Asian Art at the Honolulu Academy of Arts (1989–1994); Pritzker Curator of Asian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (1995–2002); and Director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts (2003–2010) before coming to LACMA in 2011. His research interests include Chinese and Japanese painting, Chinese and Korean calligraphy, Chinese ceramics, and the classical arts of Southeast Asia. His publications include Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period (1983), Visions of the Dharma: Japanese Buddhist Paintings and Prints in the Honolulu Academy of Arts (1991), Spirit Stones of China (1999), Taoism and the Arts of China (2000), New Songs on Ancient Tunes: 19th–20th Century Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Richard Fabian Collection (2007), View of the Pinnacle: Japanese Lacquer Writing Boxes—The Lewis Collection of Suzuribako (2012), Chinese Paintings from Japanese Collections (2014), and 17th-Century Chinese Paintings from the Tsao Family Collection (2016).

Image captions (left to right): Traditional attribution to Yi Inmun, The Poet Lee Baek (Li Bai) Watching a Waterfall, late 17th–early 18th century, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Drs. Chester and Cameron C. Chang (M.D.), photo © Museum Associates/LACMA; Vase with Dragon, Korea, 18th century, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Drs. Chester and Cameron C. Chang (M.D.), photo © Museum Associates/LACMA; Screen with Calligraphic Characters Representing the Eight Confucian Virtues, with Landscapes, Birds, Animals, and Flowers (detail), Korea, 19th century, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Drs. Chester and Cameron C. Chang (M.D.), photo © Museum Associates/LACMA; Kim Kwan-ho, Portrait of the Artist’s Daughter, 1957, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Drs. Chester and Cameron C. Chang (M.D.), © The Estate of Kim Kwanho, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

Korean Treasures from the Chester and Cameron Chang Collection lecture and exhibition walkthrough

by curator Stephen Little