Fine Print Fair, Korean Couture, Seven Jeweled Mountain: Variety at The Cleveland Museum of Art

Blog Date

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Author(s)

Stuart O. Smith, Jr.

Print Club of Cleveland’s 39th Fine Print Fair

[A Cleveland Museum of Art] Affiliate Group
The Print Club of Cleveland
The Print Club of Cleveland, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2019, supports the department of prints and drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The club’s purpose is to augment by purchase and gift the prints and drawings collection of the museum, stimulate interest and appreciation of old master through contemporary prints and drawings, and encourage private collecting.
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Learn more about the Print Club of Cleveland on its website and Facebook page.
For more information on joining the Print Club, please email printclub@clevelandart.org.

Fine Print Fair 2024 at the CMA Atrium
April 25 - April 28, 2024

Celebrate the 39th Fine Print Fair, the Print Club of Cleveland's annual benefit to support the Cleveland Museum of Art, free and open to the public.
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During the Fair you can browse and shop one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive displays of fine prints. Whether you are a long-time collector or interested in purchasing your first print, you will a wide variety of prints available to suit your taste. You will also have the opportunity to learn about works on paper through a variety of educational tours, lectures and activities, including printmaking demonstrations by local universities.

I was invited to the museum on this day to attend the Korean Couture: Generations of Revolution preview at noon, but made a point to come early for the special annual event happening in the Ames Family Atrium -- the Fine Print Fair 2024!

I have had the Print Club of Cleveland’s 39th Fine Print Fair in my personal activities calendar since I learned that the date was set. I highly recommend this annual event. In past blog posts, I wrote about being invited by The Print Club of Cleveland to the "A Prints of a Party" preview in 2017 and the Print Club of Cleveland’s 35th Fine Print Fair Opening Night Preview Party in 2019.

Here is my video from the Fine Print Fair 2024:

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.

Korean Couture: Generations of Revolution Preview

Invitation to the Korean Couture: Generations of Revolution preview.
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Korean Couture: Generations of Revolution is a compelling story about the history and transformative legacy of Korean fashion. The first of its kind at the Cleveland Museum of Art, this exhibition presents approximately 30 works, plus accompanying ephemera, ranging from excavated 17th-century aristocratic garments to contemporary Korean couture by leading and emerging designers, including André Kim (1935–2010); Lie Sang Bong (b. 1954); Lee Chung Chung (b. 1978), for LIE; Lee Jean Youn (b. 1978); and Shin Kyu Yong (b. 1988) and Park Ji Sun (b. 1988), for Blindness.

I appreciated having the opportunity to view Korean Couture: Generations of Revolution, and partipate in a special tour before it opened to the general public.

Korean Couture: Generations of Revolution is being presented in the special exhibition gallery on the museum's lower level for FREE (no ticket required) through Sunday, October 13, 2024. I recommend pausing the following video to read the informational displays that accompany the Korean fashion:

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to read the interesting facts that are in the slides!!

Sooa Im McCormick joined the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2015 and is primarily responsible for the Korean art collection. Her interests include Korean art and architecture from the 1600s to the present and the crosscurrents in East Asian visual culture from the 1600s to the 1800s. McCormick holds a PhD from the University of Kansas, with a dissertation titled “Comparative and Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Chinese and Korean Court Documentary Painting in the Eighteenth Century.” She earned an MA in art history from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, with a thesis on Edo-period Japanese painter Itō Jakuchū’s bird-and-flower paintings. She also completed graduate coursework in art history at Hongik University, Seoul, where she focused on Chinese and Korean art.

Darnell-Jamal Lisby joined the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2021. A fashion historian, his charge is to develop projects rooted in fashion studies that range across the museum’s various curatorial departments. Lisby has a thorough understanding of the broader history of fashion dating back to the 14th century, but his particular focus is illuminating the intersection of Blackness and fashion studies in the 20th and 21st centuries.
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Lisby holds three degrees from the Fashion Institute of Technology: an MA in fashion and textiles studies: history, theory, museum practice; a BS in art history and museum professions; and an AAS in fashion merchandising.

I want to thank Curator of Korean Art Sooa Im McCormick and Assistant Curator of Fashion Darnell-Jamal Lisby for the tour. It was interesting to learn from them about this exhibition. Here is my video with part of their tour:

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.

April 25, 2024, blog post: "Africa & Byzantium" Preview - Cleveland Museum of Art

I took this photo of the “Africa & Byzantium” banner as I was heading to the “Korean Couture” preview. I love how the museum puts up these big banners in the Ames Family Atrium, showing their current exhibitions.
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Thank you to the Cleveland Museum of Art for inviting us to the Wednesday, April 10, 2024, preview of the Africa & Byzantium exhibition, which included remarks by VIP delegates, and a tour of the exhibition. The exhibition is open to the public Sunday, April 14 through Sunday, July 21, 2024. It took over four years to bring Africa & Byzantium to the Cleveland Museum of Art. We appreciate being among the first people in Greater Cleveland to view these historic artworks, many of which have never been shown in the United States.

While I did not visit Africa & Byzantium while visiting the Cleveland Museum of Art on Friday, April 26, 2024, it is important to mention it as the major exhibition located directly across from Korean Couture. Learn more in my blog post:

Blog Date: April 25, 2024 - "Africa & Byzantium" Preview - Cleveland Museum of Art

As I was leaving the Korean Couture exhibition, I secured my tickets to return to see the Africa & Byzantium exhibition a second time on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (I am using my Cleveland Museum of Art membership benefit to see it again.) Africa & Byzantium is at the museum through Sunday, July 21, 2024.

My wife and co-blogger, Julie, and I watched this video being created while we were at the Wednesday, April 10, 2024, Africa & Byzantium preview.

Africa & Byzantium from Cleveland Museum of Art on Vimeo.

Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience

Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience
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Journey into the Seven Jeweled Mountain, surrounded by vivid animation inspired by a 19th-century folding screen that illustrates the mountain’s striking scenery. Just outside the immersive experience see the artwork it is inspired by, on view exclusively at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Named Seven Jeweled Mountain from a local legend claiming seven different kinds of jewels—gold, silver, pearls, coral, seashells, agate, and crystal—were buried in there, this natural wonder gained popularity after Im Hyeong-soo (1514–1547) published a detailed travelogue about his hiking experience.
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The Cleveland Museum of Art’s digital innovations team and Sooa McCormick, Korea Foundation Curator of Korean Art, in collaboration with the Technology Research Institute for Culture & Heritage (TRIC) created an immersive experience following these historical accounts with narration performed by actor Ryu Jun-yeol.

After visiting the parts of The Cleveland Museum of Art that I had planned on, I let the museum staff know that I had some more time before I needed to leave. They recommended I see Into the Seven Jeweled Mountain: An Immersive Experience -- yes, "An Immersive Experience!!" FREE - no tickets required. I am grateful they suggested I enjoy the mountain journey:

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to read the interesting facts (and scan the QR code) that are in the slides!!

What Others Say

It was great talking to Shana Black from Black Girl in the CLE during the preview. We had not seen each other in person for about five years. I have followed Shana Black on social media for years, and have always been impressed with the content she shares at: BlackGirlInCLE.com
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Here are what others wrote and photos they shared about the Korean Couture: Generations of Revolution exhibition:

Photos: A Preview of "Korean Couture: Generations of Revolution" at CMA
By Emanuel Wallace - Cleveland Scene on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 2:07 pm
Unveiling the Legacy of Korean Coutour at the Cleveland Museum of Art
April 30, 2024, written by Tabitha Jennings - Black Girl in the CLE
Be sure to read this great write-up about The Cleveland Museum of Art’s new “Korean Couture” exhibition!!
Korean flair: K-pop and Korean couture merge at Art Museum’s new exhibit, monthly MIX
Thursday, May 02, 2024, by FreshWater Staff