{"id":626,"date":"2026-06-03T10:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=626"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:45:18","slug":"inside-national-museum-of-koreas-boom-star-directors-special-lecture-makes-heritage-come-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=626","title":{"rendered":"Inside National Museum of Korea’s boom: star director’s special lecture makes heritage come alive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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National Museum of Korea Director You Hong-june gives a special lecture on Joseon-era painter Danwon Kim Hong-do at the museum in Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

While the National Museum of Korea may be best known for its wildly popular souvenirs, there is something else that makes the place a hot cultural destination: its own director, You Hong-june, a star cultural commentator and public intellectual, and his popular public lectures.<\/p>\n

Over the past year and into early this year, You \u2014 former head of the national heritage agency, Korean art history professor and writer \u2014 has invited the general public to the museum for story-driven special lectures on the arts world and lives of the painters featured in the museum\u2019s ongoing exhibitions.<\/p>\n

This week, he returned with a two-hour immersion in art and history about Danwon Kim Hong-do (1745-1806?), the beloved painter cherished for his vivid depictions of everyday life, landscape paintings and pioneering realism during the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty.<\/p>\n

The 750-seat auditorium was filled to capacity, with a cross-generational crowd ranging from Gen Z students to middle-aged office workers and retirees with gray hair, many clutching exhibition leaflets and notebooks. Online registration for the free event closed just one hour and 40 minutes after opening.<\/p>\n

Throughout the two-hour talk, You\u2019s humorous, anecdote-laden storytelling and vivid description of paintings kept the audience laughing and focused.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some incredibly realistic moments in Kim\u2019s paintings,\u201d You said, pointing to a threshing-yard scene as an example. \u201cThe landlord is sprawled out smoking, his shoes kicked off any which way. The farmhands are joking and giggling as they sweep, probably ganging up on another worker, and we can see that the poor one is really pissed,\u201d he added, drawing laughter from the audience.<\/p>\n

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National Museum of Korea Director You Hong-june gives a special lecture on Joseon-era painter Danwon Kim Hong-do at the museum in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He delivered the lecture with an easy, humorous touch, weaving in modern analogies. He emphasized how Kim\u2019s \u201cunrestrained yet clear personality\u201d shows through both his paintings and calligraphy, so that audiences could grasp, in plain language, the life of a beloved \u201cnational painter,\u201d the texture of his times and the cultural value of his works.<\/p>\n

\u201cKing Jeongjo once ordered painters to draw a scene that would make everyone burst out laughing at first glance,\u201d You said. \u201cIf anyone could do that, it was Kim Hong-do.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Kim is widely celebrated as a master of genre painting, You stressed that this is only one chapter in a far broader oeuvre.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople remember him for lively market scenes and farmers at work, but he was equally remarkable in landscapes and bird-and-flower paintings,\u201d he said, pointing to the artist\u2019s lyrical riverbank scenes and finely observed depictions of animals as examples of Joseon realism reaching a new height.<\/p>\n

He contrasted Kim\u2019s sympathetic depiction of commoners with the more paternal gaze of earlier officials-turned-painters, arguing that Kim \u201cpainted as one of the people, not simply as a magistrate looking down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an age without cameras, these paintings were the images that allowed people to see themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout Kim Hong-do and his contemporaries, there would be no visual record of how ordinary Koreans lived, worked and laughed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s lecture accompanied the special exhibition \u201cDanwon Kim Hong-do: Painting His Era,\u201d which runs at the museum through Aug. 2.<\/p>\n

The museum plans to continue special lectures by You for future exhibitions to deepen public understanding of heritage.<\/p>\n

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National Museum of Korea Director You Hong-june gives a special lecture on Joseon-era painter Danwon Kim Hong-do at the museum in Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin While the National Museum of Korea may be best known for its wildly popular souvenirs, there is something else that makes the place a hot cultural…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-korea","7":"category-trending-news"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}