How to Read Korean Animal Paintings

Lunchtime Lecture

Tags for: How to Read Korean Animal Paintings
  • Lecture
Tuesday, December 6, 2022, 12:00 p.m.
Location:  Gartner Auditorium
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center
Gartner Auditorium

Tiger Family (detail), late 1800s. Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910). Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper; 262.5 x 115.1 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1997.148

About The Event

Come to the CMA for a quick bite of art history. Every first Tuesday of each month, join curators, conservators, scholars, and other museum staff for 30-minute talks on objects currently on display in the museum galleries. 

Traditional Korean paintings feature not only animals that are native to the ecosystems in the Korean Peninsula, such as tigers, leopards, and cranes, but also exotic ones, such as gibbons and elephants. In this lecture, Sooa Im McCormick, curator of Korean art, introduces a few ways to read and understand the language of symbolism in Korean animal paintings. 

All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Principal support is provided by Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, David and Robin Gunning, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by an anonymous donor, Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, Sarah Nash, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, the Pickering Foundation, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.