Leeum Museum

Last week, I visited the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art as part of my Year 2006 resolution to visit a museum or gallery or watch a performance of some kind every month.

The Leeum Museum requires a reservation every day except Thursday when any Tom, Dick, and Harry can drop in (which is, of course, why I went on Thursday).

The Leeum is quite impressive from the outside although it is an odd collection of three very different style buildings - each designed by a different famous architect. Museum 1 houses traditional Korean art; Museum 2 houses a contemporary collection of Korean and non-Korean art, and a third building has a children's education center. There are also two temporary exhibits: Mark Rothko and Nam June Paik.

I only managed to see one of the museums (traditional art). That took two hours. I'll go back next week to see a little more.

The collection of traditional art is very well presented. It's definitely worth shelling out W2000 for a Digital Guide that explains each piece as you approach it. The descriptions are quite informative if you can ignore the somewhat over-the-top descriptions (i.e. "The Chinese acknowledge this as the greatest form of pottery in the world" or "This fantastic piece shows the superior skills of Korean potters."). I've always loved Korean pottery, so I really enjoyed Museum 1. The pottery collection isn't as extensive or varied as the National Museum, but they have some really exquisite celedon, including a number of pieces that are designated as national treasures.

I've always liked the rougher Korean pottery most and the Bunchong is usually more interesting to me. Unfortunately, this is the weakest part of the Leeum collection. They had some good pieces, but the National Museum is much better.

The only real complaint that I had with the museum is that it took at least 2 hours to wander through Museum 1 and listen to all of the descriptions on the Digital Guide; however, the Digital Guide batteries only last an hour and a half. It was mildly irritating to have to walk down to the 1st floor and get a new Digital Guide and then go back to the 2nd floor to continue the tour. One would think that the batteries would last as long as it would take most people to go through the museum. Not surprisingly, the Digital Guides are made by Samsung.