The Crow Collection of Asian Art is nestled like a small jewel in downtown Dallas, offering visitors a glimpse of a world possessing serene beauty and tranquility in the heart of the bustling city. The museum features a variety of spaces and multiple galleries focused on the arts of China, India, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia drawn from cultures, both ancient and contemporary. Just 16 years in operation, this lovingly curated, always-free museum offers a calm setting for quiet reflection and learning in the Dallas Arts District.

Kwon Soon Hyung, Nature, 2002. Porcelain clay body, 26 x 28 x 28 cm.

“Today, American life is deeply interwoven with Asia,” says Dr. Jacqueline Chao,the Crow Collection’s curator of Asian art. “The need to understand the diverse arts, cultures, histories and contemporary cultures of Asia is more essential now than ever. By juxtaposing works of Korean art of the past with the present, we situate timeless works of art within a global context, to offer viewers fresh and meaningful perspectives on Korean art, culture and history.”

Pedestal bowl
Korea, South Gyeongsang province, Haman-gun
Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE-935 CE), Gaya federation, 5th century

The museum’s Korean art collection consists of works ranging from stone sculptures to a small selection of paintings, furniture, chests, boxes, bronze mirrors and other examples of decorative art. The majority, however, are ceramics. Of these ceramics, the museum is fortunate to have a rich variety of stoneware from the early Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE-935 CE), celadon wares from the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392), porcelains from the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), as well as works by contemporary ceramicists.

The breadth of the museum’s permanent collection allows for direct comparison of these aesthetic transformations across time.

Vase
Korea, Gyeonggi province, Bunwon kilns
Joseon period (1392-1912), 18th century

Earthly Splendor: Korean Ceramics from the Collection is curated by Dr. Jacqueline Chao, curator of Asian Art at the Crow Collection of Asian Art.

While Korea’s ceramic tradition dates back 7000 years, it was not until 1958 that ceramics became one of the first arts acknowledged as an independent discipline in Korean universities.  Since then, Korean ceramic artists have developed an even broader range of techniques and forms in their work. They have travelled extensively and exhibited their works internationally, while simultaneously preserving and expanding upon some elements of Korea’s historical ceramic traditions.

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