Poetry in Clay: Korean Buncheong Ceramics from Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art

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Naeseomsi is the name of the Joseon government bureau that supervised both the tributary products that arrived at the royal palace from the provinces and the amount of liquor distributed to officials of second rank or higher. The same office also provided food and textiles for Japanese and Manchurian visitors.

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Vibrant, powerful, and stylized, the motif on this piece explores the boundary between representation and abstraction. The striking contrast between dark and light combined with the speed of the brushstrokes is captivating.

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This stunning jar exhibits many characteristics that define the best of buncheong ware: the generous application of white slip; a design that is elegant and dynamic, organic and controlled; and an exuberant floral motif, in this case a peony in full bloom rendered through simplified yet strong patterns. This vessel may have been used as a flower vase during royal banquets.

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This is a rare example of buncheong ware in which iron painting is combined with several other decorative techniques. White slip was brushed over the entire body of the vessel, after which certain areas were scraped away to delineate the fish and lotuses. The scaly body of the large, eye-catching fish was rendered with stamped dots, while its fins, like the lotus flowers and other surrounding motifs, were painted in iron pigment to create a visually lush design. The patterns around the base and the neck of the jar were inlaid. The iron-painted decoration points to the Mount Gyeryong kilns of Hakbong-ri, Chungcheong Province, though this is a singular piece. (The jar's original neck is missing; the one seen here is a modern reconstruction.)

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Here, the traditional bottle shape is given a twist through the slight flattening of two of its sides and the mischievous addition of a spout and handle shaped like the head and body of a scaly dragon-fish.

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Covered bronze or silver containers likely served as prototypes for ceramics, including this buncheong example. The bulbous, bottom-heavy contours, straight or inward-tapering rim, tall foot, and ridge-edged lid all point to its origin in metalwork. At the same time, however, this ceramic vessel has acquired the distinctive look of buncheong through the application of brushed white slip.

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The vessel's shape presumably copied elephant-shaped metalware; a drawing of a similar piece can be found in Gukjo orye-ui seorye (Illustrated Explanation of Five Rites of Government), the Joseon-period manual that prescribes important Confucian observances at the state level. While conforming to tradition and convention on the one hand, ceremonial buncheong also tends to exhibit entirely new characteristics. Note, for example, the short diagonal lines and such humorous touches as the carved turtles on the body. The exotic image of the elephant, a rare animal in Joseon Korea, combined with the tortoise, a symbol of longevity, would have made it a potent ritual vessel. As an objet d'art to the contemporary viewer, it is delightfully quirky with appealing sculptural and tactile qualities. Bronze-inspired buncheong vessels similar to this example, as well as others with incised elephant motifs, have been found at the site of the Chunghyo-dong kilns, in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, one of the principal buncheong manufacturing centers.

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The expressive qualities and economy of line capture the essential characteristics of the slightly awkward-looking dog on this bottle. In the sophisticated apparent simplicity of its rendering, there is something Picasso-esque about the animal. The opposite side is decorated with a futuristic-looking swirl pattern that seems to emphasize linearity and abstraction.

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Although at first glance the decoration may appear inlaid, the large peony flowers and leaves are in relief, raised slightly from the surface. After applying white slip over the vessel, the potter deeply incised the contours of the motifs and carved away the background (a technique known as sgraffito). The peony sprays, each consisting of a characteristically generous blossom and oversize leaves, are exuberant and untamed. Like this robust jar, buncheong employing the sgraffito technique tends to have a bolder, coarser appearance than pieces with inlaid decoration. Buncheong ware with incised and/or sgraffito designs are a trademark of the kilns in Jeolla Province, in southwest Korea, and date to the second half of the fifteenth century.

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Decorations executed in iron-oxide pigment are among the most energetic and striking in the buncheong repertoire, with some pieces, like this jar, displaying rapid, gestural brushstrokes and others offering lyrical vignettes rendered with deft and delicate touches of the brush. The famed kilns of the Gyeryong Mountains at Hakbong-ri, Gongju, Chungcheong Province, have become synonymous with iron-painted buncheong, particularly ceramics with abstract designs. The iron-painted type made up less than half the total output of the Hakbong-ri kilns, however, which manufactured nearly all categories of buncheong, along with porcelain and black-glazed stoneware. The production of this delightful class of buncheong ware seems to have been limited almost exclusively to this region (a small number were also produced in Goheung, Jeolla Province).

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The allure of this jar and other pieces like it lies in the contrast between the creamy white slip and the dark, roughly textured clay underneath, which, as here, is usually left partially exposed.

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The incised fish on this piece are minimally rendered, exploiting the effects of linearity and abbreviation. Tubular, drum-shaped bottles were formed vertically on the wheel and, thus, usually have one rounded and one flat end, as in this example. The mouth and an optional foot are attached separately, and these vessels are often meant to stand horizontally.

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Here, the initial impression of the design is of a jumble of lines and dots, from which the nearly abstract and startlingly effective depiction of a bird in flight suddenly emerges. The bird tumbling down the reverse side of the bottle may be buncheong's counterpart to the swooping crane on Goryeo celadon.

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An example of stamp-decorated buncheong at its best, this piece encapsulates the quintessential characteristics of the genre: an elegant, organic form, a meticulous repeating pattern, and the simplicity and purity inherent in both its design and overall white-slip ground.

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The decoration on both sides of this vessel is marvelously abstract in a manner consonant with twenty-first-century tastes, distilling the physical and poetic nature of the peony into only a few elements.

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This bottle is typical of the iron-painted buncheong manufactured at the kilns of Undaeri, Goheung, in Jeolla Province. It is covered entirely in milky-white slip and displays delicate tracery in its painted design.

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Certain buncheong designs might appropriately be called conceptual—possibly in intent, certainly in effect. The eye-catching, almost childlike motifs populating this piece recall elements of twentieth-century Surrealism, with certain lines reminiscent of those in paintings by Joan Mir. With its decoration open to multiple interpretations, this flask-shaped bottle offers an appeal both familiar and refreshing to the contemporary viewer.

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Yoon, who is a Buddhist, often infuses his pieces with the spirit of that ancient religion, either by transcribing sections from Buddhist sutras onto the surfaces of his vessels or through more abstract manifestations—like this work, one of several pieces that bear the same title. Beginning in the 1990s Yoon abandoned the potter's wheel in favor of hand-shaped slabs; his works became more sculptural, with vessels taking on rectangular shapes with unfinished-looking edges.

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Lee HunChung was trained in both ceramic and sculptural arts, and his diverse repertoire includes highly personal and sometimes unexpected representations of the buncheong vocabulary. Although thrown on the wheel, this globular jar has a slightly asymmetrical shape and an unfinished-looking rim. The artist used iron-rich local clay from Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, where he lives and works, mixing in a small amount of kaolin (usually reserved for porcelain). After brushing the vessel with white slip, Lee applied a clear glaze containing a trace amount of copper, which, fired in a wood-burning kiln, yielded subtle splashes of vibrant hues like purple. Color and form—some of Lee's works defy conventional vessel shapes—are among the ways in which he animates his buncheong-inspired works with an individualistic and contemporary vision.

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Born in Korea and active in Japan and France, the painter and sculptor Lee Ufan emerged in the 1960s as a leading figure in Japanese minimalist art, particularly within Mono-ha (School of Things). His oeuvre to date, though diverse and expansive, has a distinctive style. The feathery brushstrokes dancing across this canvas evoke a tactile experience not unlike that of the sensuous white slip that is brushed onto buncheong ware. Other works by this artist, identically titled, exhibit a more meticulous repeating pattern of short brushstrokes. A poignant expression of abstract minimalism, this painting explores the tension between contained energy and boundless space. Together with two other twentieth-century Korean paintings displayed in the exhibition, this painting highlights the kinds of intuitive visual connections to buncheong ware that one finds in modern and contemporary art—not surprising, given the bold and of-the-moment aesthetic of that ceramic genre. It could be that these artists were not consciously evoking the earlier Korean tradition; Lee, however, is a known buncheong enthusiast. Nonetheless, the visual resonance is undeniable, attesting to the enduring power and relevance of the art of buncheong ceramics.