-Special Exhibition Masterpieces of the Baekje Kingdom: Tiles with Patterned Designs

- Co-organized by the National Museum of Korea, Buyeo National Museum, and the Incheon International Airport Corporation -

On May 16 (Tue) the National Museum of Korea (Director General: Yoon Sung Yong) and the Buyeo National Museum (Director: Yun Hyeung-won) inaugurated a special exhibition entitled Masterpieces of the Baekje Kingdom: Tiles with Patterned Designs at South Korea's gateway to the world, the Airport Museum at Incheon International Airport.

The exhibition runs until March 29 (Fri) 2024. It was organized to introduce and more widely promote these patterned tiles from the Baekje Kingdom that have been exhibited abroad the greatest number of times (22 times, 1960-2019) among all Korean cultural heritage items. They are truly prominent treasures representing the nation.

The exhibition presents eight original patterned tiles that were produced with the remarkable aesthetic sense and technical capacity of the artisans of the Baekje Kingdom. Baekje ceramists created a wide range of patterned tiles with designs in varied motifs including landscapes, lotus flowers, clouds, mythical birds (bonghwang), dragons, and goblin-like spirits (dokkaebi). Among the tiles on display, the Tile with Divine Landscape is delicately carved with a design that resembles a landscape painting with expressions of mountains, trees, the sky, water, pavilions, and a figure. Through the nature expressed on this tile, which is considered an expression of the roots of landscape painting in Korea, visitors will be able to take a short journey to an ideal world imagined by the people of Baekje and appreciate beauty from 1,400 years ago.

The exhibition is comprised of two themes: “The Discovery of Baekje Patterned Tiles” and “Characteristics of Baekje Patterned Tiles.”

Part I. The Discovery of Baekje Patterned Tiles introduces the history of these patterned tiles from the Baekje Kingdom that were first discovered in 1937 by a farmer residing in Oe-ri, Gyuam-myeon in Buyeo-gun County, Chungcheongnam-do Province. Also presented is the story of the excavation that was urgently carried out over the course of two weeks by the Japanese Government-General of Korea. Glass dry plates taken during the recovery of some 150 tiles are presented to help visitors to gain a vivid understanding of the process of discovery.

Part II. Characteristics of Baekje Patterned Tiles presents the distinctive compositions that these patterned tiles from the Baekje Kingdom, which are beautiful in themselves, create when arranged in sets of two or four. When Tile with Divine Landscape Design and Tile with Landscape and Bonghwang Design are placed side by side, the rocks in the mountain peaks in the lower corners link. When Tile with Dragon Design, Tile with Bonghwang Design, Tile with Lotus Design, and Tile with Landscape and Bonghwang Design, which all have one-quarter of a flower design in their corners, are arranged together, they form a complete flower. These combinations allow an appreciation of both the distinctive aesthetic and structural originality of these patterned tiles from the Baekje Kingdom.

It is all the more meaningful to offer this special exhibition Masterpieces of the Baekje Kingdom: Tiles with Patterned Designs presenting the ideal world imagined by the people of Baekje at Incheon International Airport. It is hoped that visitors will be able to find peace of mind and a degree of relaxation before their departures by visiting this space imagined by the Baekje people as they dreamed of the world that the immortals called home.

Attachment 1. Poster for the Special Exhibition Masterpieces of the Baekje Kingdom: Tiles with Patterned Designs Presented at the Incheon Airport Museum

Attachment 2. Images Related to the Special Exhibition Masterpieces of the Baekje Kingdom: Tiles with Patterned Designs Presented at the Incheon Airport Museum