Unattainable North Korean Art curates a collection of paintings from fifty-eight artists from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ("DPRK"). Centring on the theme of nature, the paintings portray geographical sites and citizens of DPRK. Art and literature feature as a poignant role in inspiring the DPRK people to contribute to the development of DPRK, the collection not only exhibits the artistic skills of the artists, but offers an opportunity to discover DPRK from the people's perspective.
In-depth analysis of chosonhwa, the emblem of North Korean art The primary resource research, the first of its kind on chosonhwa -Vivid visual materials of the North Korean art scene based on nine visits over six years by Georgetown University professor BG Muhn -The art creation environment of North Korean contemporary ideological and collaborative paintings revealed for the first time North Korean Art: The Enigmatic World of Chosonhwa offers the reader a rare glimpse into the art, culture, and society of North Korea, a country largely closed off from the world for more than seven decades. This book examines the development and characteristics of chosonhwa, the style of painting unique to the DPRK and that nation s primary vehicle for Socialist Realism art through the present day. Author BG Muhn made nine trips to Pyongyang in six years. He documents his journey from initial fascination, through first-hand research, to his unexpected discovery of the creative and expressive dimensions of this art form. He gained special access to see national treasures, interviewed artists and cultural leaders, and surveyed a broad range of books and visual documents. Through his perspective as a practicing visual artist, Muhn makes the case that North Korean painting merits inclusion in the global art canon. This comprehensive and revealing text is the first of its kind and is an important contribution to the fields of East Asian, 20th century and contemporary art history.
North Korean Art: Paradoxical Realism at the 2018 Gwangju Biennale is an exhibition that reflects the culmination of an eight-year exploration into the art of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). During that time, BG Muhn made nine research trips to the DPRK to pursue a growing passion for the uniqueness and mystery surrounding Chosonhwa, the North Korean name for traditional ink wash painting on rice paper. The DPRK is notably the only country in the world after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 that continues to create Socialist Realism art. This exhibition is likely the first opportunity for people around the world to see North Korean Chosonhwa in such a broad range of images within Socialist Realism art.
This title complements the 2010 exhibition Flowers for Kim-Il-Sung at MAK – Museum for Applied Art/Contemporary Art, Vienna and features new essays by international writers on a wide spectrum of issues.The relationship between North Korean art and ideology is examined, how modern and traditional values are dealt with, as well as the commercial conditions of artistic work – the market value of art. It also considers how a country's art is received abroad, together with the difficulties faced by curators if they want to show this work outside the country's borders.The concept of art including the question of its significance to society is explored through the field of fine art, stamp design, book illustrations, wall mosaics, literature and music.
In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state. Based on vast expertise, this book reveals how average North Koreans live, how their leaders rule, and how both survive
At age 24, Song Byeok became an official state propaganda artist under the totalitarian Kim regime of North Korea. After famine, family death, torture and prison camp, Song escaped from North Korea in 2002 and continued to create art in South Korea. Song Byeok now embraces his artistic freedom by subverting the ideals and indoctrinations of his former upbringing. Creating parodical imagery, he pairs North Korean Juche Realism with elements of Pop, mocking the ideology and former figurehead Kim Jong Il. His satirical painting Take off Your Clothes (2010) juxtaposes the head of Kim Jong Il with the body of pop icon, Marilyn Monroe subverting the ideal image of the dictator by feminizing it. Song Byeok's hybridization of Kim Jong Il's image recalls similar parodic representations of Chairman Mao and Monroe created by the Chinese Political Pop artists of the late 1980s. These artists confronted Mao's Socialist Realism by utilizing it in combination with Western Pop iconography, subverting its ideal. Song Byeok's work is comparable as it transforms the visual language used by the Kim regime to weaken it. These artists employed the device of the feminine masquerade to ridicule their leaders, exposing the dualistic nature of their subject by challenging the past ideal to divulge a new message. Similarly, Song Byeok creates his Kim/Monroe figure to offer the viewer an alternative, formulating an invented pop icon that alters the perception of their controlled political system. Song Byeok moreover relies on the tools of the North Korean spectacle to expose the artificiality of its propagandistic imagery and his work can be analyzed along side Guy Debor's theses Society of the Spectacle (1967). Debord's commentary of the spectacularized system endures as a critical analysis of the North Korean state and correlates with the subversive artwork Song Byeok produces. By using the language of the North Korean spectacle, Song Byeok also contradicts it, going beyond its limits to shed light on its false representations. Inventing a subversive contemporary pop icon within an alternative reality, Song Byeok challenges the spectacuarlized masquerade in North Korea and offers a unique example of the importance of artistic freedom.
An Authentic Glimpse of a North Korea We’ve Never Seen Before, by a Prize-Winning Filmmaker Anna Broinowski is the only Westerner ever granted full access to North Korea’s propaganda machine, its film industry. Aim High in Creation! is her funny, surreal, insightful account of her twenty-one-day apprenticeship there. At the same time it is a fresh-eyed look, beyond stereotypes, at life in that most secretive of societies. When Anna learned that fracking had invaded downtown Sydney and a coal seam gas well was planned for Sydney Park, she had a brilliant idea: she would seek guidance for a kryptonite-powerful anti-fracking movie from the world’s greatest propaganda factory, apart from Hollywood. After two years of trying, she was allowed to make her case in Pyongyang and was granted full permission to film. She worked closely with the leading lights of North Korean cinema, even playing an American in a military thriller. “Filmmakers are family,” Kim Jong-il’s favorite director told her, and a love of nature and humanity unites peoples. Interviewing loyalists and defectors alike, Anna explored the society she encountered. She offers vivid, sometimes hilarious descriptions of bizarre disconnects and warm friendships in a world without advertisements or commercial culture. Her book, like the prize-winning documentary that resulted from her visit, is a thoughtful plea for better understanding. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
