Jerry Lee Musslewhite (1937-2009) was an obsessive collector his entire life; as a child it was unusual rocks, beautiful leaves and books, but as he grew older his attention turned towards drawing and painting. By the time he entered college near his hometown of Arp, Texas, he had become good at drawing, so it was only natural that he would major in Fine Arts. In the family archive from this period in his life are several large folios of his "life studies," probably class exercises, where various nude models are rendered in careful and skillful detail. Done mostly in charcoal, these drawings show a talent for quickly capturing not only the human form, but also the interesting poses and expressions of the sitters. After college, Musslewhite served in the US Army for several years during the early 1960s. One of these tours of duty took him to South Korea, where he became enamored of the country, its rich cultural heritage and its warm-hearted people. After discharge from the service, he applied for a job as a civilian employed by the Army and asked to be posted to Korea. His skill and knowledge of art persuaded the authorities to assign him as Assistant Director of the Craft's Shop in Seoul and later in Taegu. At first, Musslewhite was overwhelmed by bureaucracy and reports, but soon he was able to delegate much of this side of the job to others and concentrate on what he did best--teach hands-on arts and crafts to service personnel. A gifted storyteller with natural charm and warmth, Lee (as he was known to acquaintances) made friends easily, and kept the atmosphere in the shop light and full of laughter while he instructed them in oil painting, drawing, bead work, photography, pottery, metalwork and some limited woodwork. Teaching crafts honed and refined his connoisseurship of the various media. After work and on weekends, Lee pursued his real passion, collecting art. He visited all parts of town, all types of stores-from exclusive to junk shop. He had limited resources and was thrifty by nature, so became a seasoned negotiator. Even inexpensive purchases for a few won became major exercises in "How cheap can I buy it?" This unfortunate trait was annoying not only to the dealers, but also to those, like myself, who ventured out with him. However, it taught me how to drive a hard bargain. During his early years of collecting Lee was delighted to buy a chipped or cracked antique dish for one tenth the price of one in good condition. Gradually, he came to realize that in ten or twenty years the broken piece would still be worth little, while the more perfect piece likely would grow significantly in value. This was a hard lesson for him to learn. To satisfy his innate and compulsive collecting habits, Lee continued to buy hundreds of small damaged items at very inexpensive prices. Fortunately for us, he would, with great skill, caution and usually anxiety, spend larger sums on special and unusual works that he just couldn't seem to live without. Among these were large numbers of Three Kingdoms stonewares; Goryeo metal mirrors, bowls and bottles; fine Joseon-dynasty wood boxes and chests; innumerable literati paintings; and, most of all, fine Buddhist, shaman, folk and secular paintings. Lee was careful to select only those Buddhist paintings that were complete and those that could easily be restored. He committed significant sums to repairing and remounting every one of them. And, because they were his favorites, he never parted with them during his lifetime. When Lee Musslewhite died in November of 2009, his vast holdings had almost crowded him out of three apartments and two houses in Texas. There were nearly 15,000 books on various subjects, most on Asian art, culture and literature. There were hundreds of ceramics, around twenty percent of which were authentic and in good condition. There were dozens of baskets and various containers, most still in their original wrappers as purchased or shipped from Korea in the 1960s. There were nearly seventy Joseon-dynasty wooden chests and boxes, around forty Western-style oil paintings and fifteen oils by minor Korean contemporary artists. Beside the stacks of painted screens and hanging scrolls were shelf after shelf of gilt-bronze Buddhist images from Tibet, Mongolia, China and Korea. Ninety-one of Lee's one hundred four Korean Buddhist, shaman and folk paintings (sold, or to be sold at Christies, New York), are from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. These wonderful paintings of monks, mountain spirits, buddhas, deity groups, officials and ascetics are a lasting tribute to Lee Musslewhite's love and dedication to Korean art. Richard Mellott Former Curator of Education, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco Larkspur, California

Anonymous (19th century)

Assembled Deities

Details

Anonymous (19th century)
Assembled Deities
Ink and color on silk, framed
47½in. x 32½in. (120.6 x 82.5cm.)

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