Photo: National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea

Flask with sgraffito floral decoration

15th century

Korean

The carefree charm of Korean buncheong ware is on display in this flask with a freely drawn floral design created by incising, carving, and adding slip (clay mixed with water) to parts of the surface. Before firing, the flask was covered in a transparent glaze. Buncheong wares were used widely in Korea beginning in the 1400s and were also highly prized by aficionados of the tea ceremony in medieval Japan, to which this work’s provenance is traced.

Buncheong ware; stoneware with white slip

Height: 9 7/16in. (24 cm)

Purchased with funds from the Dorothea B. Taylor bequest

70.12

Provenance: Kochukyo Co. Ltd., by 1970; purchased by the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1970

Photo: National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea

Now on view at the Asian Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Korean Sensibilities: The Colors of Life, September 17, 2002 - December 5, 2005.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Mountain Dreams: Contemporary Ceramics by Yoon Kwang-cho, November 13, 2004 - June 19, 2005.

Tokyo, Japan, Suntory Museum of Art, Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum, July 25 - September 6, 2009 (Kobe, Japan, Kobe City Museum, September 19 - December 6, 2009; Kofu, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, December 23, 2009 - February 28, 2010; Atami, Japan, MOA Museum of Art, March 13 - May 9, 2010; Fukuoka, Japan, Fukuoka Art Museum, May 23 - July 19, 2010).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Luminous: The Art of Asia, October 13, 2011 - January 8, 2012.

Published ReferencesTrubner, Henry. Asian Art in the Seattle Art Museum: Fifty Years of Collecting. Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1983; pp. 10-11, illus. b&w

Kawai, Masatomo, Yasuhiro Nishioka, Yukiko Sirahara, editors. Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum. The Yomiuri Shimbun, 2009; cat. no. 93.

Korean Art Collection in the Seattle Art Museum, U.S.A. Tajaon Kwangyaoksi: Kungnip Munhwaja Yaonguso, 2015; p. 88.

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