Korean Treasures from the Chester and Cameron Chang Collection

Korean Treasures from the Chester and Cameron Chang Collection is a selection of works drawn from the largest gift of Korean art in the museum’s history. In 2021, the museum announced the acquisition of an initial major gift of 100 works of Asian art from Dr. Chester Chang and Dr. Cameron C. Chang (MD). The collection consists primarily of Korean paintings, calligraphy, sculpture, ceramics, lacquers, furniture, and other works of art ranging in date from the Three Kingdoms Period (c. 57 BCE–668 CE) to the 20th century. The bulk of the works in this collection has remained within a single family for a century and has never publicly been on view. Organized chronologically and by material, this exhibition presents 35 donated and promised gifts, including traditional Korean secular and religious paintings, calligraphies, rare mid-20th-century oil paintings from both North and South Korea, and ceramics of the Goryeo (918–1392) and Joseon (1392–1897) dynasties.

Chester Chang (Chang Jung Ki), a former LACMA trustee, was born in Seoul in 1939; he and his son Cameron are descended, through Chester’s mother, Min Byeongyoon, from the family of Queen Min (1851–1895), the last queen of the Joseon dynasty (known posthumously as Empress Myeongseong).

This exhibition is curated by Stephen Little, Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art and Department Head, Chinese, Korean, and South and Southeast Asian Art.