Boseong-gun Hosts Invitational Exhibition for Couple Lee Hak-su and Lee Hwa-young

Jeonnam Intangible Cultural Property No. 37 Onggijang

The Meeting of Onggi and Traditional Color Painting

Boseong-gun, Jeollanam-do announced that from the 17th of this month until the end of December, an invitational exhibition featuring Jeollanam-do Intangible Cultural Property No. 37 Onggi Master ‘Ongcheon Lee Hak-su’ and artist ‘Yedam Lee Hwa-young’ will be held at the Korea Tea Museum.

The invitational exhibition of ‘Ongcheon Lee Hak-su’ and ‘Yedam Lee Hwa-young’ is the second, following the one held in October 2022 at Boseong-gun’s ‘Botjae’.

Artist Ihaksoo [Photo by Boseong-gun]

This exhibition will fill the Korea Tea Museum’s special exhibition hall and part of the lobby with about 30 works by Lee Hak-su, including jars, chamber pots, basins, water bottles, medicine hooks, jangdokdae (fermentation pots stands), and teacups, as well as about 10 traditional color painting works by Lee Hwa-young.

Among the notable works is Lee Hwa-young’s ‘Master Craftsman and Granddaughter.’ The characters in this piece bear a striking resemblance to Lee Hak-su, who is making Onggi pottery. Observing Lee Hak-su crafting Onggi and his granddaughter looking on, visitors can expect to feel the warm love of family.

Lee Hak-su uses high-quality clay containing iron oxide as his material, does not use a glossy finish, and makes traditional glaze himself using organic materials from coniferous tree leaves.

He has been crafting Milyeok Onggi, which is rustic yet beautiful, for decades using a traditional technique that fires the pottery at a high temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius in a traditional kiln fueled by pine wood, which maintains a steady heat.

Additionally, Lee Hak-su was designated as Jeollanam-do Intangible Cultural Property No. 37 on December 19, 2013, after serving as an apprentice to his late father (Lee Ok-dong, who passed away in 1994), the holder of Intangible Cultural Property No. 96 Onggi Master, thus continuing a 300-year-old family tradition.

Currently, he operates Milyeok Onggi in Miryeok-myeon, Boseong-gun, producing and passing on traditional Onggi pottery that breathes life into old shapes and methods.

Ewha Young Artist at Work

Artist Lee Hwa-young was also a holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 96 Onggi Master but, instead of Onggi work, she studied traditional color painting (Minhwa) under her teacher Woo Cheong Kim Saeng-su and is active as a Minhwa artist.

In 2022, her first submitted Minhwa work ‘Yeonhakdo’ won a special prize at the ‘LeSalon’ exhibition in Paris, France, providing an opportunity for the world to pay attention to Korean traditional art.

Meanwhile, this exhibition is conducted with support from the Jeollanam-do Intangible Cultural Property public event funding and is a special exhibition where visitors can view Onggi pottery and traditional color paintings (Minhwa) in one place.

Boseong = Park Cheon-seok, Honam Reporting Headquarters, Asia Economy hss79@asiae.co.kr

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.