Sol Jung

Position
Ph.D., 2021
Role
Japanese Art
Bio/Description

Profile

Sol Jung is the inaugural Shirley Z. Johnson Assistant Curator of Japanese Art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. In this role, Jung stewards the museum’s collection of pre-modern, modern and contemporary ceramics, lacquer ware and metalwork, which together number over 3,000 works. Jung also collaborates with the curatorial team and across departments to contribute significantly to the museum’s Japan-related initiatives. Jung specializes in Japanese art history with a focus on how transnational maritime trade affected Japan’s visual culture during the pre-modern period. Jung received her B.A. with distinction in the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania and her M.A. and Ph.D. in art and archaeology from Princeton University. Jung curated Princeton University Art Museum’s first rotation of Korean ceramics entitled “Korean Ceramics: From Archaeology to Art History.” Jung’s dissertation, supervised by Andrew M. Watsky, explored the sixteenth-century inception and reception of Korean tea bowls called kōrai jawan in Japan. Fieldwork at several maritime settlement sites in Japan and analysis of period tea documents, literary texts and archaeological remains have informed her research, which has been supported by the Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies and the Kyujanggak International Center for Korean Studies.