NMK News Card

Virtual Tour

Icons and Identities Comes Back Online

Co-organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London and the National Museum of Korea, Icons and Identities showed 78 major works from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery for the first time in Korea. The exhibition was a great success, despite the COVID-19, drawing a total of 51,847 visitors over 109 days and marking an average of 475 visitors per day.

The NMK filmed the exhibition in 360° VR and virtually transported the special exhibition gallery intact for an online exhibition which opened on August 17 on the museum’s website. The 78 works on display can be seen in high definition and much closer than in real life using the zoom in function. Commentary on the works and video materials are also provided, while a curator’s introduction to the exhibition can be viewed on the NMK’s official YouTube channel. This online exhibition content offers a good opportunity to see the exhibition for those who have missed it and also an opportunity to go over it again for those who have seen it.

Overseas Exhibition

Overseas Exhibition KOREA- Gateway to a Rich Past Opens

The National Museum of Korea and the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, Leeuwarden, one of the major cultural institutions of the Netherlands jointly present the exhibition KOREA- Gateway to a Rich Past. Running October 16, 2021 to August 21, 2022 in the special exhibition gallery of the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, the exhibition features a range of Korean ceramics spanning from ancient earthenware, Goryeo celadon, Joseon white porcelain, buncheong ware, and onggi pots for storing kimchi to contemporary works. It introduces to the people of the Netherlands aspects of Korean life through pottery and ceramics from the past to the present.

Under the theme “Distinctly Korea, Elite (yangban) culture, Beauty culture, Food culture, Ceremonies & Rituals,” the exhibition showcases moon jars and other masterpieces from the NMK alongside Korean items from the collections of the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics and the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden. The year 2021 marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and the Netherlands. The exhibition is the result of close cooperation between the NMK and the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics including the World Ceramics Gallery on the third floor in particular, and will be a milestone in cultural cooperation between Korea and the Netherlands.

White Porcelain Moon Jar

Joseon Dynasty / Ceramics / H. 37.1 cm, D. 34.4 cm