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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, very useful in the past and for this nowadays regime as well!

I got the opportunity to capture all the exhibited paintings, so this one is the 13th 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 of the 13th one in this series:

Artist: Kyoeng-ho

Title: without title. Painted in 2007.

Oil paint on canvas, 118 x 292 cm.

The Korean war (1950 -1953) was necessary to undo the division between the North and the South.

North Korea celebrates that war as a victory on American imperialism, as the US did not succeed to destroy the Democratic Republic of Korea.

The fact that the war actually failed (as its objective of reuniting Korea was not achieved), is not shown by any of the art, culture and history of North Korea. They keep the dream of reuniting Korea alive.

Many paintings show emotional images of the painful division of the country and the desire to be reunited.

On the other hand, there are images showing the struggle of the South Korean people, trying to get rid of the imperialistic force of the US and its South Korean accomplices. Certain developments in South Korea are selected and reinterpreted for propaganda purposes. Examples are the student activism and the fight for democracy in the 1980s, which are exclusively interpreted as a desire to be reunited with North Korea, suggesting that democracy is only to be found in North Korea. Anti-American protests are therefore a highly desired topic for North Korean artists.

This image will show this perfectly. The South Korean riot police stops a reunion march, departing from the campus of Yonsei University in Seoul, whilst the international press is watching. During the late 1980s, student activists made several attempts to organize such reunion marches, but they were all prevented by the riot police. The visual image is correct, but the slogans have been changed into North Korean political jargon. After all, the painting was directed at a North Korean audience.

PS: Lyn (LynEve) has provided a link in her comment on the previous one of this series. Please check-out this very interesting and to this series very appropriate LINK.