The collaboration between the Cleveland Museum of Art and the National Museum of Korea builds on the museum's long-standing tradition of presenting exhibitions that illuminate the depth, diversity and complexity of Asian art.

At the center of the exhibit is a dispersed set of ten hanging scrolls from the 1300s depicting the 10 Kings of Hell. They were first brought together for an exhibition in the 1960s. The scrolls offer a rare opportunity to experience the set’s panoramic sequence of judgment, atonement and salvation during Korea’s medieval era.

One of the themes explored in the exhibition is how sociopolitical upheavals and environmental pressures shaped medieval Korea’s preoccupation with a purgatorial afterlife. A section of the exhibit features a film that showcases dealing with the loss of a loved one and the preparations made to guide the dead to the afterlife.

“Ten Kings of Hell: The Afterlife in Medieval Korea” will be on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art from Oct. 11 through Jan. 3, 2027. Visitors can explore the exhibition or take a tour of the exhibition on Fridays through Sundays. Cleveland State University students can present their student IDs to receive admission for $8.