NEW YORK, Feb 6 — New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is preparing to showcase a range of works examining how artists have depicted the Korean peninsula’s iconic Diamond Mountains site.

While the site — also known as Mount Geumgang  — has been a source of cultural pride since ancient times, says the museum, its location in what is now North Korea has made its accessibility highly variable in modern times. "Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art” will feature nearly 30 landscape paintings of the emblematic site from the 18th century to the present, including painted scrolls, screens and monumental modern and contemporary artworks.

The highlight, says the Met, will be an early-18th-century album by the master painter Jeong Seon, who revolutionised Korean painting with his depictions of native scenery. The exhibition is said to be the first in the West to focus on the subject, and most of the primarily loaned works will be on display in the US for the first time.

The show comes as eyes will be turning to the mountains of the Korean peninsula when the Winter Olympics get under way in Pyeongchang, while also marking the 20th anniversary of the Met’s Arts of Korea Gallery. "Diamond Mountains: Travel and Nostalgia in Korean Art" opens February 7, two days aheads of the Olympic Games, and runs through May 20. — AFP-Relaxnews