Bojagi - Youngmin Lee's Blog

Well, it was a wonderful weekend in LA! Left home on Saturday with excitement, flew down to LAX and headed to the Getty Center. My friend Minjee was already there waiting for me. Getty's famous tram took us to the top of the hill. Minjee and I went directly to the gallery to see this- Looking East: Rubens's Encounter with Asia

There were paintings, prints, world maps and costumes from the opposite side of the world. No one knows exactly how or when Rubens encountered this man in Korean costume. There's a possibility that he never met this Korean man in person....  Sometimes I feel disoriented when I go to the museum because I don't know how to process my thoughts about the artifacts that I see from there. But this time I was exposed to the information from experts before I get there. Thanks to Minjee! Historians and scholars research lots of historical facts and information to get an answer for their questions. I just admire their works and perseverance.

So I was able to understand how Europeans got these paintings of people in Asian costumes. How? I recommend you to visit the Getty center or at least visit their website :)

And I saw paintings and costumes from the Korean National Museum. I took Korean costume history when I was in college and I enjoyed it but I didn't retain much anymore (it is more than two decades ago.....). So seeing some old Korean costumes were nice refresh for my memories. And I rediscovered how beautiful Korean costumes are!

Here is one of the costumes that I saw at the Getty center.

Cheollik- man's coat

The history and philosophy of Korean costume: Design,Structure, Rank, and Fashion

This was Minjee's lecture title on Sunday.

Frankly it was my third time listening same lecture since she did a couple of practice run but it was the best lecture out of those three! Despite it was a drop in lecture, more than 150 people came and listened her lecture. And some of them were waiting to ask questions after the talk is over. As you see below, she brought many different Hanbok (Korean costume) to show. And there was a volunteer model from Korean Cultural Center to demonstrate how to wear them. She wore  Korean traditional hair style with beautiful hair ornaments. The curator of KCC also came and help out to make the lecture and the demonstration run smoothly.

Now, do you want to see Rubens' paintings and Korean costumes? If you are near LA area and curious, it's not too late. The exhibit is on until June 9th!