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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Chunghi Choo

Friday, May 23, 2025 | Karl Cole

Chunghi Choo works in the ages-old tradition of gold or silver overlay on copper vessels. Like other far Eastern cultures, Korea had a great reverences for all art forms, including those considered &l ...

Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Lotus Ten-Panel Screen

Monday, January 23, 2023 | Karl Cole

In observance of National Korean American Day, which occurred on Friday, January 13th, I dedicate the January Gem of the Month to the singular beauty of Korean art through the centuries. Korean art co ...

Curator's Corner

Autumn Color: Chung Hae-Cho

Monday, November 14, 2022 | Karl Cole

There have been some gorgeous arrays of color in Massachusetts foliage this autumn. I am particularly amazed at the palette of reds, especially when contrasted with any leaves that are still green. Th ...

Curator's Corner

AAPI Heritage Month 2022: Kim Hwan-gi

Monday, May 23, 2022 | Karl Cole

Kim Hwan-gi (Kim Whanki) was a pioneer modernist in Korean art and subsequently in American art after he immigrated in 1963. His pioneering abstract works added greatly to the rich modernist atmospher ...

Curator's Corner

Possibilities of Paper: Kim Hyung Joo

Monday, January 24, 2022 | Karl Cole

Contemporary interdisciplinary artist Kim Hyung Joo explores Korean culture in her artworks, including through papermaking and fiber arts. Means of communicating culture, such as traditional clothing ...

Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Kim Bong-Ryong

Monday, August 30, 2021 | Karl Cole

I have long held a big “Wow!” for lacquer in East Asian arts. That was especially true when I recently came upon this piece, which is why I'm featuring it as my Gem of the Month. It is suc ...

Curator's Corner

How Art Looks at Age

Monday, August 9, 2021 | Karl Cole

Having made my weekly visit to my dear friend Alice in a senior residence—where she was committed by a state conservator—I began thinking about how society perceives older (and I refuse to ...

Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: The Maebyong Form

Monday, December 9, 2019 | Karl Cole

Nothing excites me more than beautiful ceramics. I’ve always had a fascination with all kinds of ceramic art. I always thought I would like to make ceramic art if I did not paint—probably ...

Curator's Corner

COLD

Tuesday, March 5, 2019 | Karl Cole

It’s been really cold here recently, relatively speaking for New England. How do you turn something New Englanders consider a negative into a positive? Focus on cool colors in works of art. Colo ...

Curator's Corner

An Art Ode to Labor Day Week: Kim Deuk-sin

Thursday, September 7, 2017 | Karl Cole

I often marvel at how hard producers of the TV show M*A*S*H tried to faithfully depict everyday life in Korea. Of course, looking at this scene from the turn of the 1800s is an unfair comparison to 19 ...

Curator's Corner

The "Things" of Art: Lee Ufan

Monday, November 21, 2016 | Karl Cole

I really like introducing you to artists I’ve just begun to appreciate, especially if their work is a breath of fresh air on an otherwise dreary day. That certainly applies to the work of Ufan L ...

Curator's Corner

What Type of Balance? You Decide.

Monday, November 14, 2016 | Karl Cole

I probably shouldn’t be using the word Balance after the latest election. Let’s ignore that by doing some visual exercises. I’m always intrigued with the issue of “balance&rdqu ...

Curator's Corner

Letters Are Beautiful

Thursday, October 13, 2016 | Karl Cole

I learned long ago how venerated calligraphy is in some cultures, and we speak of that in many of our Davis books. A short while ago as I was reading about contemporary Iranian artist Parastou Forouha ...

Curator's Corner

Survey No. 10: Ubiquitous Real

Monday, January 19, 2015 | Karl Cole

So far we have taken a look at Classicism and Romanticism around the world in the 1800s. Now let’s look at “realism,” which—like every other style—has been a trend somewh ...

Curator's Corner

Survey No. 5: 1400s/1500s II

Friday, December 12, 2014 | Karl Cole

Sometimes I wonder if, unfortunately, most Westerners only know about Korea in relation to that unfortunate war in the 1950s or because of contemporary politics in North Korea. This is yet anothe ...

Curator's Corner

The Subject as Art: Yoon Kwang-cho

Monday, January 16, 2012 | Karl Cole

Did you ever find it hard to decide what the most significant aspect of a work of art is? This can happen when we look at a work and find multiple levels of meaning, aside from purely aesthetic concer ...

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Artist Birthday: Chunghi Choo

Gem of the Month: Lotus Ten-Panel Screen

Autumn Color: Chung Hae-Cho

AAPI Heritage Month 2022: Kim Hwan-gi

Possibilities of Paper: Kim Hyung Joo

Gem of the Month: Kim Bong-Ryong

How Art Looks at Age

Gem of the Month: The Maebyong Form

COLD

An Art Ode to Labor Day Week: Kim Deuk-sin

The "Things" of Art: Lee Ufan

What Type of Balance? You Decide.

Letters Are Beautiful

Survey No. 10: Ubiquitous Real

Survey No. 5: 1400s/1500s II

The Subject as Art: Yoon Kwang-cho

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