The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA), the largest art institution in the United States specializing in Asian art, has appointed its first curator of Korean art.
On July 17, the Korea Foundation announced that Sunwoo Hwang has been named as the inaugural Korea Foundation Curator of Korean Art and Culture at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.
Hwang, who was selected through the museum’s international search, received her master’s degree from the University of Chicago and completed a doctoral program in Buddhist art at Dongguk University in Korea. She joined the museum as a Korea Foundation Global Challenger intern in 2018 and continued to work for the museum for five years after her internship ended, helping to organize exhibitions of Korean art.
In her new role, Hwang will be in charge of the Korean collection and will be responsible for revamping the museum’s permanent Korean exhibitions. She will also curate a special exhibition on the Lee Kun-hee Collection that will open at the NMAA next year in November.
The Korea Foundation is working with leading museums and art galleries overseas to fund and support the permanent operation of Korean art curatorship.
The program has significance in that it promotes the development of Korean art in museums, laying the groundwork for the expansion of Korean art in foreign countries in the mid to long term.
Since April this year, the National Museum of Asian Art has been exhibiting “Public Figures” by Do Ho Suh, a leading Korean installation artist, at Freer Plaza in front of the museum with partial support from the Korea Foundation to commemorate the museum’s 100th anniversary.
In September of last year, the first Korea Foundation Curator of Korean Art position was established at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
“We are pleased to have such a promising talent working at the museum in Washington, D.C., the center of world politics, diplomacy, and art,” said a Korea Foundation official, adding, “We’ll actively cooperate with Hwang to help lead the museum into the next century of Korean art.”
“As the museum’s history begins to unfold in its second century, Sunwoo Hwang will provide the continued leadership needed to grow our Korean programs and collections and serve as a national and international leader in research and presentation of Korean art and culture,” said the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.
The NMAA was the first art museum to open on the National Mall in 1923, when Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) donated a large collection, and is the largest art institution in the United States specializing in Asian art.
Last year, the museum celebrated its 100th anniversary with the opening of a new gallery dedicated to contemporary art, and its inaugural exhibition, “Park Chan-kyong: Gathering,” features South Korean media artist Park Chan-kyong.
BY EUNJU LEE, HOONSIK WOO [julee@joongang.co.kr]
