What can be learned about Korean paintings preservation through research into the differing international and historic practices used to conserve them?
This symposium of two half-day presentations and Q&A sessions celebrates the achievements of the Amorepacific Project for the conservation of Korean paintings at the British Museum from 2018-2022. It was conducted in real time by moderators with a simultaneous translation between English and Korean.
The British Museum collection of Korean paintings includes those mounted on scrolls, folding screens, modern flat screens in frames, and in cardboard window mounts. The Amorepacific Project has aimed to ensure the conservation of the Korean paintings in the collection uses appropriate techniques and materials based on researching Korean historical mounting.
Korean paintings have unique qualities less well-known than other East Asian paintings. Older Korean paintings can be found to have been treated using Japanese or Chinese materials and restoration techniques. Through collaboration with Korean specialists - including scroll mounters and dyers - the Amorepacific Project Conservator was able to develop skills and knowledge of traditional Korean scroll mounting. These skills were then used alongside other Asian and Western conservation techniques and approaches for the treatment of selected items in the collection. Research into Korean mounting textiles and their dyeing has been rewarded with new findings.
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Image credit: Hirox video microscope 3D image showing the indigo-dyed textile of a 19th-century mount on the two-panel screen, 'Scenes of daily life'. On the left is the blue indigo protected under mount elements, and on the right is the colour that has changed due to exposure to light.