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The Art of Propaganda
Prints & Paintings from North Korea
Exhibit opens Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Showing until October 31, 2005
Foreign Correspondents Club, Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.bangkokpost.com/en/Outlook/26Sep2005_out11.php
A special exhibition of political art from the DPRK (North Korea)
Beijing-based filmmaker and journalist Nicholas Bonner has assembled a remarkable collection of political artworks produced in North Korea's national studios over the past decade. It ranges from oils to traditional ink washes, but it is the astonishingly bold and vivid woodblock prints which are the most striking. In what may be perhaps their largest public showing outside of the hermit kingdom, the FCCT is pleased to present many of these works on our gallery wall during October.
This is truly art with a purpose. The woodblocks in particular, either commissioned by the state or painted as an act of selfless patriotism, are meant to be a permanent visual testament to the North Korean communist revolution, each one an ideologically pure parable on its values and virtues. They may be images of courageous military accomplishment or heroic construction but all are intended to evoke pride and wonderment at the larger-than-life events they supposedly chronicle. This is propaganda as art, not the reverse, and the pictures offer the outside world a rare, and colorful, glimpse into one of the world's most closed and controlled societies.
The skill of woodblock printing derives from an old and well-established Korean traditional art form. It was adopted for political purposes during Korea's fight against Japanese occupation and later during the Korean war when woodblock prints, able to be made without cumbersome machinery, proved a quick and effective way of disseminating information and, through cartoons, thumbing a nose at the enemy. The tradition remains alive today and training in their production continues at several Korean universities.
Prints can be seen at:
http://www.pyongyangartstudio.com/traditional/woodblock.html