::corngrowth

gallery

In Goes, a town in Zeeland, The Netherlands, at the end of August 2017 an exhibition was held, showing more than fifty North Korean paintings, made between 1960 and 2007 by professional North Korean painters. All paintings were made on behalf of the North Korean state and are originally intended for domestic use in public buildings and hotels.

Art in North Korea is not free of obligation and is always in the service of the leader, who benefits from an idealized image of North Korea. The regime uses this well-painted socialist-realistic art to create and maintain an utopian North Korea. Essentially it's the glorification of the system by means of paintings with subjects like 'family', 'agriculture and industry', 'war and confrontation', with enemies like the US and Japan: propaganda wrapped as art!

I got the opportunity to capture all the exhibited paintings, so this one is the first one of a series of the by me selected images for uploading to Caedes. Although the last exhibited painting was made in 2007, think that this series will still show you an unique look at the closed/isolated North Korea.

Some details/description:

Artist: unknown

Title: without title

Oil painting on canvas, 158 x 288 cm.

The 'liberation' (please notice the quotation marks) of Seoul by North Korean troops, a few days after the beginning of the Korean War (1950-1953), is shown here as a triumph. The people welcome the troops and throw flowers to them. There are banners everywhere with texts. One reads: 'Long live the visionary general Kim II Sung.' Another announces that patriotic boys and girls sign up as volunteers. All this take place in front of the former Japanese government building in the center of Seoul.