The grafting of a canon: The politics of Korea's National Treasures and the formation of an art history.

摘要

This dissertation examines how Korea's National Treasures system, originally established by the Japanese authorities during Korea's colonial period (1910-1945), helped to define the traditional Korean art canon of today, and why this canon continues to be hailed as representative of the Korean nation. The manipulation of visual art is a powerful political device, and the Korean National Treasure system is no exception. Seeking to validate their territorial claims, the colonial Japanese excavated and claimed ancient objects from Korean soil, kept those that served their desired interpretation of Korean history, and preserved their selection by legislating a Treasures system whose objects they then displayed in museums, which they built for this purpose, and at international exhibitions. After liberation, the Korean officials not only chose to retain the cultural properties system, but upgraded the "Treasures" to "National Treasures" for their own political needs, using the objects to represent to the populace and the world a visual form of national identity while concealing their colonial origins. The choices made by Koreans at all levels -- government officials, art dealers, collectors, smugglers, museum curators, and scholars -- in response to the problem of what to do with the colonial-selected treasures determined how Korea's art historical canon subsequently formed. Although these objects came to be valued, first by the Japanese and then by the Koreans, as embodying the highest aesthetic ideals found in the country, I argue that the process of canonization of Korean art has been inherently political in its origins and has involved a grafting of both Japanese influences and Korean national choices. The succession from Japanese excavations to a canonization of Korean art history is multi-pronged and will be addressed by delving into some of the key forces at play: the state, collecting and art markets, the museum, and early publications. Thereby, I am able to articulate the factors and assumptions that animated the development of today's Korean art canon, a topic which, until this point, has not been critically addressed.