Kim Koo’s Brushwork Joins Joseon Masters in Rare Calligraphy Showcase

Works featured in A Heart That Shares Beauty – Newly Acquired Donations II. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Korea

[News Culture] The National Museum of Korea has brought together four works of calligraphy that carry far more than words on paper. Spanning different periods and personal histories, the works reveal traces of political turmoil, friendship, longing and conviction through the movement of the brush.

The exhibition, A Heart That Shares Beauty – Newly Acquired Donations II, opened July 27 in Gallery 4 of the museum’s Donations Wing. The museum has received 51,627 cultural objects from more than 320 donors to date, building a collection shaped in part by private owners who chose to return cultural heritage to the public.

This latest presentation focuses on four works of calligraphy, each offering a different window into the people and circumstances behind its creation.

Works featured in A Heart That Shares Beauty – Newly Acquired Donations II. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Korea

Among them is a folding screen written in regular script by independence leader Kim Koo, widely known by his pen name Baekbeom. Donated by Jeong Yeong-bok, daughter-in-law of independence activist Kim Yong-seong, the work was written in January 1949 in remembrance of independence activist Lee Bong-chang and addressed to a fellow comrade.

The uneven, at times trembling strokes bear the physical toll of a turbulent life, while the text reflects Kim’s enduring concern for Korea and the resolve that defined his years in the independence movement.

Another highlight is a designated Treasure by Hwang Gi-ro, one of the most celebrated cursive-script calligraphers of the mid-Joseon period. Donated by Yun Gwang-ja, the work moves with an almost wave-like freedom, evoking the unhurried mood of a scholar surrounded by mountains and water.

Works featured in A Heart That Shares Beauty – Newly Acquired Donations II. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Korea

A 1670 album donated by Cho In-ho is being shown to the public for the first time. Written by ten literary figures for a friend departing as an envoy to Beijing, it gathers farewell poems filled with concern for the long journey as well as curiosity about distant lands beyond Joseon’s borders.

Also on view is Lee Gi-woo’s seal-script work Muhaksanbang, donated in 2021. Its compact, deliberate brushwork offers another example of how an individual hand can absorb the pressures and sensibilities of its time.

Works featured in A Heart That Shares Beauty – Newly Acquired Donations II. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Korea

Calligraphy has long been more than an exercise in elegant writing. The state of mind of the writer, the rhythm of the hand and the circumstances surrounding the moment of creation can all remain embedded in the finished work.

That quality gives the four pieces particular resonance. Kim Koo’s determination amid hardship and the anxiety of writers bidding farewell to a friend bound for a distant capital survive not as abstract historical episodes, but as emotions still visible in ink.

The National Museum of Korea is also using the exhibition to spotlight the donors who placed privately held cultural heritage back into the public realm. Seen together, the works connect the artistry of celebrated calligraphers with the historical weight of the lives behind them—and with the act of sharing that made their public display possible.

Reported by News Culture [e-mail]