'Korea failing to promote its art'

Robert Turley, president of Korean Art Society, poses at Insa-dong.[ Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald]

To listen to Korean galleries and art insiders, Korean art seemed to have made it big overseas during the last few years, especially in the United States.

According to one New York art expert, that is not the case.

"Korean art culture is still so unknown in America, while everyone knows about the Japanese culture. You can ask any 7 year old and they would know what samurai is, but nobody knows what hwarang is," said president of Korean Art Society, Robert Turley.

Turley's art society is a non-profit organization based in the United States that holds events regarding Korean art, as well as publishing a semiannual journal and monthly newsletter. It was established in 2008 and currently has more than 1,200 members.

Turley fell in love with Korean art about 15 years ago during his first visit here. His friends took him to the National Museum of Korea, and the minute he stepped into the "cheongja" (blue porcelain) room it was love at first sight.

"I had never seen anything like that. They were so refined and the colors were so beautiful. Then we went to the Joseon Dynasty room to see buncheong, where I really couldn't believe how the same culture that made the refined cheongja could have also made the wild buncheong. It was like discovering some culture that invented both classical and jazz music," he said.

Dazzled, Turley told his friends to leave without him and stayed at the museum for the rest of the day, reading every single label there. Korean art became Turley's main love ever since then, though his wife is Japanese.

"It saddens me that more people do not know about Korean art. It would be like a world that has never heard of Beethoven. How empty would their lives be?"

Turley taught himself Korean history and culture, opened the Korean Art and Antiques Gallery in New York and started the society. He visits Korea two or three times a year to meet curators and browse artworks, and jumps at any chance to help promote them in New York.

Turley said, however, that he was disappointed to find out what a poor job the Korean government is doing to introduce its own art to other countries.

The recent Korean Art Show in New York in the first week of March was an example, he said. It was organized by the Galleries Association of Korea and Korea International Art Fair and supported by Korea's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports.

"It was a great opportunity to see much Korean art under one roof, but nobody knew about it. The opening day was packed, but after that it was a ghost town. I saw very few red dots in the whole place. I felt sorry for the galleries who had to pay a great amount of money for the booths and especially for the talented artists who must have poured in all their hopes and dreams into the show," he said.

According to KIAF, there were about 3,000 visitors to the six-day show, including 1,500 on the opening day. Only half of the participating galleries made sales.

Turley blamed the organizers' awful marketing for the poor results.

"The whole thing was like a big secret with hardly any promotion. I only found out about it a few days before the show. They had a one-page website, not much press exposure and a video on YouTube that had only 48 views," he said.

He asserted that Korean government really needs to change the attitude and the way of promoting its beautiful art.

The Korean Cultural Service in New York and Korean Cultural Center in L.A., - both operated by Korea's culture ministry - have great resources, but are getting the worst results due to poor marketing, he said.

"Korean Cultural Service, whose mission is to promote Korean culture to non-Koreans, answers the phone in Korean. It sounds like a small funny thing, but it is a big sign of their attitude," he said.

So before visiting Korea this time, Turley tried to contact Korea's culture ministry to discuss better ways to promote Korean art and to learn from each other. However, he got no answers.

"I would think they would try to reach me and have me help them. I am not asking for money or anything. My society is trying to help promote Korean art. I think I can do a lot for them," he said.

He hopes the attitude will change.

"Artists, galleries and the public will finally speak up. I would just like them to realize that it is not that difficult to make changes. The Korean president is always saying 'Let's promote the Korean brand.' Culture is the best way in doing that."

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young