Embroidery Art

Embroidery Art

Seoul is said to have over 800 museums.  If that's true, you could visit a different one every day for more than  2 years. Sookmyung Women's University has made things easy for museum go-ers at its campus in the Yongsan district of Seoul by putting 2 museums, the Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum (CEM) and the Sookmyung Women's University Museum, under the same roof (and the same management).   

Here's a view of the building:

Directly behind is Hyochang Park, which makes for a lovely stroll.  The museum building is in fact located about halfway between Sookmyung Women's University Station (Line 4) and Hyochang Park Station (Line 6).  From either station, it's approximately a 10-minute walk to the museums.  

At the top of the stairs that you can see at left in the photo above, you'll find this plaque by the main doors of the building:

 

I'll save my photos from the Sookmyung Women's University Museum for a future post.  Today we'll just focus on the CEM.  

The CEM is named for its founder, Ms Chung Young Yang, who is a prominent embroidery artist.  The nucleus of the museum's holdings is her personal collection.  Other pieces have been added over the years.  The CEM also organizes exhibitions involving pieces on loan from other institutions and collectors.  When I last visited, in January, 2016, one of Ms Chung's own pieces, a 10-panel folding screen (byeongpung) was the first exhibit inside the entrance:

Ms Chung's work is justly celebrated in Korea, and she has completed numerous commissions for government agencies, including a folding screen for the Blue House, the residence of the President of the Republic of Korea.

While the museum celebrates Korean embroidery art, it also contains beautiful examples of embroidery work from around the region.  My own favourites are the kimonos, especially these 2 red ones:

My absolute favourite is this winter kimono:

 

I can only imagine how many hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours of handiwork went into the creation of this exquisite garment.  

While the museum's footprint is not very large, it's very cleverly laid out to lead the visitor in concentric circles through "rooms" of which the walls are display cases.  In the very center is a glass display case that allows the visitor to get a 360 degree view of the pieces inside.  At the time of my last visit, the exhibition in progress featured the embroidered clothing of China's Qing dynasty, examples of which you can see in the central display case below:

 

Note the dragon robes in the display cases around the side.  Since the CEM is also a teaching/learning resource, the exhibits shed light on how the garments are created.  Of particular interest to me was the method of making dragon robes.  I had imagined that the robe was sewn together first and then embroidered, but that's not at all how it was done.  

This close-up view of a group of dragon robe panels provides a visual clue:

Notice the swathes of embroidery-free blue silk.  They would eventually be cut away for the embroidered parts to be matched up and stitched together.  

My house was only a quarter hour away from the CEM, so I visited many, many times during the years I lived in the area. In the end, I started bringing groups from the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch.  Full disclosure: I'm a life member of the RASKB and served on the Excursions Committee and the Council from 2013 to 2016. Here I am with the RASKB group that I led to the CEM in January, 2016:

The uniformed young lady was our student docent.  English-medium tours can be arranged if you give some advance notice.  

If you're interested in embroidery art, or textile art in general, not to mention the history of clothing, the CEM is a must-see destination for your visit to Seoul.  If you have any questions, please comment below, on the Lotus & Persimmon Facebook page, or under a relevant image in the Lotus & Persimmon gallery on Instagram.  

Posted on 19/01/2017 by David Gemeinhardt Art, Embroidery Art, Travel, Museums, Countries, Korea 0

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