Saffron Korea Library Series launched with six new titles

One of the most important works on Korean art, specifically Korean paintings, has been translated into English and edited by two internationally renowned London-based art historians and will be launched this month at SOAS, University of London.

Korean True-View Landscape: Paintings by Chong Son (1676-1759), a ground-breaking, revised and updated English-language edition of Kyomjae Chong Son chingyong sansu (The Art of Kyomjae Chong Son) by Ch'oe Wan-su, has resulted from many months of painstaking work by Dr Pak Youngsook and Professor Roderick Whitfield, of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Korean True-View Landscape: Paintings by Chong Son (1676-1759) is the inaugural title in a new series on Korean studies, Saffron Korean Library [ISSN 1748-0477], launched by Saffron Books, the imprint of London-based Eastern Art Publishing [EAP].The book was originally published in 1993 by Pommunsa [Bumwoosa], Seoul.

Now thoroughly updated by the two authors, the book includes many new features, including maps and a chronology, plus comprehensive indices, developed by the editors/translators.

Korean True-View Landscape: Paintings by Chong Son (1676-1759) provides an unprecedented insight into the distinctive art and literati culture of Korea in the early eighteenth century. Chong Son's albums of landscape paintings celebrate the scenic beauty of Korean rivers and mountains, focusing on the capital Hanyang, now Seoul, the Han River, the East Sea and the world-famous Diamond Mountain. The author, Ch'oe Wan-su, Chief Curator of the Kansong Museum in Seoul, presents travelogues and poems by Chong Son's contemporaries, scholars and officials who were inspired to compose those remarkable texts when they too visited the same landmarks.

Korean scholars habitually wrote in Chinese, and frequently referred to Chinese paragons of landscape beauty, even while extolling the superior virtues of their native land. Some of them travelled as diplomats to the Chinese capital and even sold Chong Son's paintings there at a handsome profit, though the artist himself had no opportunity to visit China or see Chinese paintings at first hand. Accordingly, this book illuminates contemporary relations between the two countries, as well as introducing each site in detail and explaining typical features of Korean architecture and customs.

This edited translation has been thoroughly prepared for western readers, both students and the general public, and provides additional explanatory notes and maps, not included in the original Korean edition.

In addition to Korean True-View Landscape: Paintings by Chong Son (1676-1759), Saffron Korea Library will feature a number of other important titles incorporating translations from the existing body of literature on Korea.

About the Author and Editors

Ch'oe Wan-su studied Korean History at Seoul National University (SNU). After finishing his degree at SNU in 1965, he worked as curator at the National Museum of Korea. Since 1966 he has been Chief Curator at the Kansong Art Museum in Seoul. He has taught graduate courses at various institutions, including Seoul National, Yeonse, Ehwa, Dongguk, and Chung'ang Universities. He has written articles and books on Buddhist art and Korean temples, Korean calligraphy, especially on the calligrapher Ch'usa Kim Chong-hi, and the true-view landscape paintings of Kyomjae Chong Son.

Youngsook Pak studied at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, and at the Universities of Bonn, Köln and Heidelberg in Germany, obtaining her PhD at Universität Heidelberg in art history and sinology. She has organised exhibitions of Korean art in Ingelheim, Germany and in the British Museum. In 1989 she established courses on Korean art history in the Department of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where she still teaches. She has written articles and books on ancient Korean art, Kogury_ murals, Silla royal tombs, and Korean Buddhist art.

Roderick Whitfield studied at SOAS and at St Johns College, Cambridge, and wrote his PhD on Song painting in Princeton University, returning in 1966 to St Johns College as Research Fellow and was appointed Assistant Keeper of Chinese art at the British Museum in 1968. In 1984 he was appointed Professor of Chinese and East Asian Art at SOAS and Head of the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. An international authority on Chinese painting and Buddhist art, he has written numerous articles and books. With Youngsook Pak, he organised the exhibition Treasures from Korea at the British Museum, and co-authored volumes in the series Handbook of Korean Art.

Bibliographical Information

KOREAN TRUE-VIEW LANDSCAPE: PAINTINGS BY Chong Son (1676-1759)
Saffron Korea Library Series

Series ISSN 1748-0477

382pp | 287 x 210mm

ISBN 1 872843 71 9 | Hard cover

ISBN 1 872843 72 7 | Soft cover

Saffron Books, an imprint of Eastern Art Publishing (EAP)

P O Box 13666, London SW14 8WF, UK

Other titles in the Saffron Korea Library Series

MAEHWA THE PLUM BLOSSOM: READING THE CULTURAL CODES OF KOREA, CHINA AND JAPAN
I Eo-ryeong

Translated by John Frankl

ISBN 1 872843 73 5 Hard cover

ISBN 1 872843 74 3 Soft cover

THE BEAUTY OF OLD KOREAN PAINTINGS: A HISTORY AND APPRECIATION OF TRADITIONAL PAINTINGS

Lee Dongju

Translated by Robert Carrubba

ISBN 1 872843 88 3 Hard cover

ISBN 1 872843 89 1 Soft cover

THE SECRET SPIRIT OF KOREAN ARCHITECTURE
Kim Bongryol

Translated by Lee Yongsuk

Photographs by E Inmi

ISBN 1 872843 82 4 Hard cover

ISBN 1 872843 83 2 Soft cover

GARDENS OF KOREA: HARMONY WITH INTELLECT AND NATURE

Huh Gyun

Translated by Donald L Baker

ISBN 1 872843 84 0 Hard cover

ISBN 1 872843 85 9 Soft cover

A HISTORY OF KOREA

Korea History Association

Translated by Joshua Van Lieu

ISBN 1 872843 86 7 Hardcover

ISBN 1 872843 87 5 Soft cover

Saffron Korea Library [ISSN 1748-0477] is a new series devised by Saffron Books, an imprint of Eastern Art Publishing, London, to spotlight important texts from Korea. The series is being launched to coincide with the designation of Korea as the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, 2005.

Saffron Books is a division of EAP and a leading British independent publisher of books on Asia and Africa, publisher of several periodicals, including East Asia Journal and Eastern Art Report, and third-party distributor of books and journals for other publishers.

Publisher and General Commissioning Editor:Sajid Rizvi

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