Intro; Title Page; The 2018 Gwangju Biennale Imagined Borders; Why North Korean Art Matters; A Journey of Investigation; Relying on Primary Source Research; What Has Been Developed Over the Past Six Decades of North Korean Art; Ink Wash on Rice Paper; The Expression of North Korean-ness; The Distinctive Characteristics of Chosonhwa; Socialist Realism Ideological Painting; The Core Collaborative of Painting Socialist Realism; Propagandistic Elements in Collaborative Painting Melodramatic Traits; Kitsch Elements Beloved by North Koreans; Landscape Painting with Unexpected Power and Waves in Ink Wash Painting on Rice PaperThe Obsession to Capture Reality; The Tradition of Literati Painting in the DPRK; The Auspicious Connotations to the People of the DPRK; Uniformity or Assumption; Art as the Triumph of Transcending Life's Struggle; A Manifestation of Human Spirit & Emotion; Art Can Be Still Victimized by Political Ideology; Copyright; Back Cover
Summary
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.
