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Key information

Date

• 23 October 2026 to 24 October 2026

Venue

• SOAS University of London,
• Room:
• Khalili Lecture Theatre (Day 1)
• Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre (Day 2)

About this event

Held in conjunction with the British Museum exhibition Korea: 2,000 years of creativity, this two-day international symposium, co-organised by the British Museum and the School of Arts and Centre for Korean Studies at SOAS, University of London, brings together leading scholars of Korean art history. Following the exhibition’s chronological narrative, each presentation examines one or two key objects on display and explores their wider historical, cultural and social context.

Complementing the exhibition and its accompanying publication, the symposium provides an opportunity for audiences to explore Korea’s cultural history in greater depth and to consider the exhibited objects from a range of scholarly perspectives.

The Keynote Lecture forms part of the Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art Annual Lecture Series.

Programme

Day 1 - Friday, 23 October 2026, 7:00pm – 8:30pm

Keynote Lecture

• Private Passion, Public Legacy: The Lee Kun-Hee Collection
• Youngna Kim, Professor Emerita, Seoul National University
• Supported by the Percival David Foundation

Day 2 - Saturday, 24 October 2026, 9:30am – 5:00pm

• Treasures from Korea in 1984
• Roderick Whitfield, Professor Emeritus, SOAS University of London
• Korea: 2,000 years of creativity
• Sang-ah Kim, Curator of Korean Collection, British Museum

Panel 1: Early Iron Age to Unified Silla

• Title: The Emergence of Individuality and the Translation of Power Relations 
• Jongil Kim, Professor, Department of Archaeology and Art History, Seoul National University, and Director, Seoul National University Museum
• Title: Small Images, Larger Questions: Gilt-Bronze Buddhist Sculptures in Context
• Sunkyung Kim, Adjunct Professor, Laguna College of Art + Design

Panel 2: Goryeo

• Title: Margins of Great Compassion: Reading Goryeo’s Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara
• Seunghye Lee, University of California, Los Angeles
• Title: Producing the Perfection of Transcendental Wisdom Sutra in the First Goryeo Tripitaka: A Dive into How Things Got Done and Were Made a Thousand Years Ago on the Korean Peninsula
• Remco Breuker, Professor of Korean Studies, Leiden University
• Title: Goryeo Celadon from the Perspective of Material Culture
• Namwon Jang, Professor, Department of Art History, Ewha Womans University 

Panel 3: Joseon

• Title: Joseon Landscape Painting between Real and Ideal
• Burglind Jungmann, Professor Emerita, University of California, Los Angeles
• Title: The Moon Jar: A Korean Icon
• Charlotte Horlyck, Professor of the History of Korean Art, SOAS University of London
• Title: Picturing Possession: Material Culture and Visual Illusion in a Nineteenth-Century Korean Chaekgado
• Jaebin Yoo, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Hongik University
• Title: A Painter’s Pictorial Biography: Chae Yong-sin’s Self-Edited Pyeongsaengdo
• Kilhong Min, Curator, National Museum of Korea

Panel 4: Twentieth century

• Title: Utopian Visions and Modernity in Early Modern Korean Art: Focusing on Looking at Mt. Geumgang and Paradise
• Soohyun Mok, Institute of Modern and Contemporary Art affiliated with the Association of Korean Modern & Contemporary Art History
• Title: From Moon to Dots: Kim Whanki and the Making of Modern Korean Painting
• Hyunju Lee, Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
• Title: Bodies of History: Sin Hakchul, Minjung Art, and Picturing Modern Korea
• Sohl Lee, Associate Professor of Art History, Department of Art, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Registration

The event is free to attend, but registration is essential. Please follow the links at the top of the page to book your place.

Organisers and Sponsors

Co-organised by the British Museum and the School of Arts and Centre for Korean Studies at SOAS, University of London.

Sponsored by the National Museum of Korea.