Korean culture and art

At the turn of the 20th century, a time when Asian art curators were most interested in Chinese or Japanese art, Stewart Culin dedicated much of his time to Korea. He was an ethnographer, anthropologist, and the Brooklyn Museum’s very first Asian art curator.

Akin to a fine cup of tea, the fresh leaves of China were steeped in the hot water of Korean culture and the brew poured into the dainty cups of Japan.

Confucius said: “I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.”