top five most-read features and interviews of the week
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Art of the unseen: Pulling back the curtain on North Korean art
By Michael Laff Many critics look at North Korean art, especially portraits of Kim Il Sung surrounded by adoring children in idyllic village scenes, and dismiss it as mere propaganda. B.G. Muhn looks at the same work and marvels at the level of detail found in facial expressions and the delicate brush strokes that capture creases on pant legs.
In a nation where artistic themes are decided before the painter even sets the brush to canvas, the real creativity can be found in the artist’s mastery of technique and choice of color. Muhn, an artist and professor at Georgetown University, is an encyclopedia of North Korean art, making it a point of emphasis to identify the nation’s most famous painters, both historical and contemporary. He can rattle off names of artists who remain obscure to a world just getting its first glimpse of North Korean art through occasional exhibitions. Outside the world of Beijing auctions and a handful of European collectors who built up private holdings, he anticipates the skeptical reactions.
“I agree with most critics who say there is no individual expression in North Korean art,” he said. “One South Korean critic said, ‘Why do they need so many artists if they all do the same thing?’ There is no art for art’s sake in North Korea.”
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Visiting North Korea as a professional photographer
By Jennifer Dodgson
Christian Petersen-Clausen had never visited North Korea before traveling there this year to photograph the Hermit Kingdom for NK News‘ North Korea 2016 Calendar. Traveling by bus from Pyongyang to Kaechon, Nampho, the West Sea Barrage, the DMZ and Sinchon he discovered a land where ancient Confucian traditions and Soviet decor contrast with modern technology and conspicuous consumption.
NK News spoke to him about his trip and asked him to share some of his favorite images with us. As a photographer, one of the biggest surprises was that much of the guidebook advice about photographing the DPRK is inapplicable on the ground In fact, the rules – both tacit and official – regarding tourist photography change frequently, and depend to a great deal upon the whims and tolerance levels of your group’s guides.
While it is normal for guides to step in and prevent visitors from photographing soldiers and military installations, Petersen-Clausen’s guides were also unhappy about him taking photographs in museums and other sites featuring large-scale images of Kim Jong Un. Otherwise, he was left relatively free to choose his own subjects, even to the extent of being allowed to approach ordinary North Koreans in the street.
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I’m dreaming of a North Korean Christmas
By Dennis P. Halpin A mountain peak with a glistening treetop-like structure, where South and North Korea come together, has sadly come to symbolize military tension rather than peace on earth.
The twinkling of Christmas lights, at the confluence of the Han and Imjin Rivers, reportedly once penetrated across the DMZ to the North Korean city of Kaesong. Aegibong, the site of a fierce battle at the end of the Korean War, is named for the legendary “love mistress” who climbed the peak to gaze northward for her lost lover, the then-governor of Pyongyang. He had been taken away during a 17th-century Chinese invasion. In that regard, the peak is a rather perfect analogy for a divided Korea, although the annual holiday battle there over the Christmas tree remains rather mystifying to many outsiders.
NK News reported on December 3rd that the annual imbroglio over the Christmas tree has pitted local residents of the border municipality of Gimpo, concerned for their physical security, against conservative Christian groups seeking to exercise freedom of religion as guaranteed in South Korea.
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