In 1973, Kay E. Black, a housewife living in Denver, joined a group of local art enthusiasts on a tour of museums in Seoul. One of the stops was the Emille Museum, founded by Zo Za-yong, a pioneer of Korea’s 20th-century folk art movement, who brought to light the currently sensational image of a tiger and magpie. Black could not have known that this single visit would change the course of her life.

She was immediately captivated by Zo’s introduction to brightly colored Joseon-era (1392-1910) folding screens, which depicted books and assorted scholarly objects. Upon returning home, Black enrolled in the Asian Studies program at the University of Denver. Over the next four and a half decades, she devoted herself to the study of “chaekgeori” (also spelled chaekkori), a still-life genre within the broad tradition of “minhwa,” or Korean fol

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