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!

If you like to know more about the North Korean history/background or like to put the image in its perspective, please check-out this link.

I got the opportunity to capture all the exhibited paintings, so this one is the 15th 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 15th one in this series:

Artist: Yi Donghyon

Title: The finish. Painted in 2001.

Oil paint on canvas, 117 x 75 cm.

Winning North Korean atlete during the Olympic Games.