The department of Korean art is responsible for collecting, researching, exhibiting, and publishing the art of Korea. The Korean art collection began with the donation of a group of Korean ceramics in 1966 by Bak Jeonghui, then president of the Republic of Korea, after a visit to the museum. The collection grew gradually until 2000 when the museum acquired over 200 works of art from an important collection in Los Angeles. Today LACMA’s Korean art collection is recognized as one of the most comprehensive outside of Korea and Japan. Highlights include wonderful examples of objects from the Three Kingdoms, Goryeo, and Joseon periods, with an emphasis on Buddhist and literati painting, ceramics, lacquer, and sculpture.
The Korean Art Galleries in the Ahmanson Building are now closed for construction. 
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Highlights from Korean Art
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Deoksewi, 153rd of the 500 Nahans (Arhats), Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), dated 1562
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Mount: 50 3/4 x 15 1/2 in. (128.905 x 39.37 cm); Image: 18 x 11 3/8 in. (45.72 x 28.89 cm); Roller: 17 1/2 in. (44.45 cm)
M.84.112
Murray Smith Fund
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Worship of arhats , disciples of Buddha who had attained
enlightenment, was observed in China as early as the seventh century.
Such worship accompanied the growth of Buddhism in Korea, where it
was widely practiced after the eleventh century, and became popular
with Zen Buddhism's emphasis on the individual's struggle for enlightenment.
The inscription on this rare and important painting dates it to
1562 and identifies it as the 153rd of a donation of 200 Buddhist
icons commissioned by an unnamed queen for the Fragrant Forest Temple
to wish an infirm king good health and long life. Most of the donation
was destroyed in the Hideyoshi invasions of the 1590s or subsequently
lost. Such paintings served as icons of direct prayer and meditation;
in addition, they were a form of pious gesture that benefited the
donor as well as the person on whose behalf the gift was made.
Beautifully painted, with strong, deft brushstrokes and delicate
applications of color, this portrayal captures the arhat's expression
of rapt concentration. It is executed in a tradition of arhat painting
that emphasizes Chinese, rather than Indian, conventions and mannerisms.
Chinese influence is apparent in both the composition and details
such as the rock, the pine branch, and the arhat's features and long
eyebrows. His lean face and chest, framed by the halo of a saint,
suggest asceticism and age. The robe is an elaborate patchwork that
gives evidence of hisf priestly status. Typically Korean is the jagged
brushwork of the rock and the fascination with the elaborate patterns
and stylized folds of the robe.
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