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Jane Portal is an expert in Korean antique art. The former head of the Chinese and Korean Sections at the British Museum¡¯s Department of Asia, Portal moved to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where she has been appointed to the Matsutaro Shoriki Chair for Art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa. She said she plans to comprehensively transform the exhibit, presently focused on Japanese works, to feature a wide range of Korean pieces, not because of her blind love for Korea but to help visitors to the museum gain a balanced view of Asian art.
She said the Asian collection at the Museum of Fine Arts ranks at the top in North America and Europe. But it puts too much emphasis on Japan. There are 60,000 Japanese woodcuts alone, while the entire collection of Korean artworks numbers less than 1,000, and only 200 of them are on display.
The museum is building a new exhibition hall after collecting US$500 million in donations. If the administrative office and the woodcut collection move to the new annex, then more space will be available in the existing hall. Portal plans to use that space to display Korean works that have been asleep in the museum¡¯s vaults.
She said people tend to look for exhibits of a country¡¯s past when they become interested in that country¡¯s present. For example, 850,000 people visited the ¡°First Emperor: China¡¯s Terracotta Army¡± exhibition at the British Museum from September of last year until this April. Portal said aggressive sponsorship by the Korean government, businesses and museums is needed to promote exhibitions of Korean artworks, because they let people know more about the country.
Portal majored in Chinese art. Born in Malta under British rule, she graduated in Oriental Studies at Cambridge University and studied Chinese archaeology at Beijing University. She still recites Tang Dynasty poetry.
But Portal has also fallen in love with the Korean Moon Jar. The jar at the British Museum was purchased in Korea back in the 1930s by British ceramics expert Bernard Leach and Japanese collector Yanagi Muneyoshi. The British Museum bought it at an auction in 1997, when Portal was in charge of the Asian department. She said the Korean Moon Jar leans to one side making it appear imperfect, but it is absolutely beautiful. She describes it as white, simple, natural, clean and utilitarian at the same time. She said her greatest achievement during her time at the British Museum was to purchase that object.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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