The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

Munja-Chaekgeori Screen (Character-Books Screen)

Munja-Chaekgeori Screen (Character-Books Screen)

early 1900s
(1392–1910)
Eight-panel folding screen, ink on paper
Overall: 150.5 x 330.2 cm (59 1/4 x 130 in.); Painting only: 85.1 x 27.3 cm (33 1/2 x 10 3/4 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2017.6
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The eight Korean characters each mean filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, trust, propriety, righteousness or justice, modesty or integrity, and humility or the feeling of shame.

Description

This folding screen is a whimsical harmony of two different subjects: chaekgeori, or books and things; and munja, or characters. The lower section of each panel depicts the imagery of things, including books, decorative arts, and utilitarian objects. The upper portion of each panel bears a classical Chinese character. Read from far right to left, the eight characters refer to the values of Confucian teachings of the Joseon dynasty: filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, trust, propriety, righteousness, modesty, and humility. While these two pictorial genres are harmoniously conjoined on the same picture plane, two sharply contrasting world views—urban consumerism and traditional Confucian ethics that despise materialism—compete with one another.
  • ?–2017
    (Kang Collection, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2017–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Yi, Young-joo. "Character Painting in the Late Joseon Dynasty [조선후기의 孝悌文字圖]." Misulsa nondan (2007): 231-260. www.dbpia.co.kr
    Chung, Byong-mo. Revolution of Anonymous Painters: Folk Painting [무명 화가들 의 반란, 민화]. Seoul: Dahal Media, 2011.
    Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014.
    Beyond Folding Screens [조선, 병풍의 나라]. Seoul: Amorepacific Museum of Art, 2018.
    Kim, Su-jin. "조선 후기 민간 사례용(四禮用) 병풍 연구 [Painted Folding Screens for Confucian Rituals in the Late Joseon Period]." Hangukhak (2019): 187-229. www.dbpia.co.kr
    Ch'a, Mi-rae, Kwi-suk An, Cleveland Museum of Art, and 국외소재문화재재단. The Korean Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Edited by An Min-hŭi. First edition, English ed. Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Series, 16. Seoul, Republic of Korea: Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 348-349, no. 003
  • Popular Art from Early Modern Korea (Korean art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 2021-April 17, 2022).
    Korean Gallery 236 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 10, 2017-January 8, 2018).
  • {{cite web|title=Munja-Chaekgeori Screen (Character-Books Screen)|url=false|author=|year=early 1900s|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2017.6