Landschaften aus Pjöngjang

Artists of the North Korean Mansudae Art Studio in galerie
son

Only a few steps away from the North Korean embassy,
galerie son is exhibiting from the end of August a small
selection of works by some of the most renowned artists of
the Mansudae Art Studio of North Korea. The paintings and
prints were chosen in Pyongyang and show a variety of
styles and techniques in dealing with the subject of
landscape, which has become very popular with the
Mansudae-artists since the Seventies. Water, be it the sea,
a lake, river or waterfall, plays a central role in most of the
works, as does the mountainous Korean landscape. The
association of artists Mansudae should not at all be
understood as a variant of the Chinese artists’ village Dafen,
which produces copies of paintings on an industrial scale.
Although the Mansudae Art Studio also produces
“utilitarian” art – for example official sculptures and
paintings that are often commissioned from Africa – it is at
the same time a pool of about 1.000 artists working
individualistically, who have gone through a long period of
training and demanding studies.
This exhibition is the first step in a long-term project of
galerie son, which intends to bring a few North Korean
artists to work over a longer period of time in Berlin. Later,
an exchange is intended to take place with South Korean
artists, a rapprochement similar to the one that took place
between artists from East and West Germany after the fall
of the Wall: an approach in the field of art as a small
miracle!
Against our expectations of North Korean art, the works in
the exhibition show a picture of complete normality. Thus,
KIM Myong Un shows Pyongyang in evening mood, full of
shimmering lights at the border of the river Taedong and
ressembling both fin-de-siècle Paris with its bridges
overspanning the Seine, and a contemporary Asian
megacity. In the background, a skyscraper in the form of a
paintbrush can be seen that represents the Chuch’e
ideology of Kim Il Sung.
Herein artists have the task of creating art with a content
matter understandable to the masses and embodying the
ideas of Socialism and community. The Chuch’e ideology
integrated the intellectuals in the process of moving the
nation forward: the emblem of the Korean Worker’s Party
shows the paintbrush beside the hammer and sickle.
Within such an ideology, abstract art is not acceptable. But
particularly in the representation of water, painters are able
to create big surfaces that integrate both the virtuosity of
realistic depiction and the zest of the abstract. This becomes
specially evident in the oilpainting by KIM Song Gun
showing a seashore landscape with water masses wildly
rising before a background of jagged rock formations
belonging to the Kumgang-mountains, which look as if they
are collapsing due to the impact of the water. The
representation of little seagulls in the foreground further
emphasizes the quality of water as a powerful force of
nature. Whether this force is a metaphore for the regime or
just a representation of the passing of time is left to the
viewer. This picture is a variant of a painting by the same
artist, which was often used as a background for official
photographs of politicians, like when Bill Clinton came on an
official visit in 2009. The Wall Street Journal’s reporter Eric
Gibson condemned it all to quickly as “totalitarian kitsch”.
But even he noticed that “the waves were bigger than the
figures posing for the photograph, and they dominated the
foreground as if ready to break out and drown the
assembled dignitaries.”
Many of the Mansudae artists still work in traditional Asian
techniques that have a long tradition. There will be
woodcuts on show, and also the chonsunhua or “brush-
and-ink” technique, which in Korea always was a bit bolder
than in China. A special aesthetical allure is unfolded in the
woodcuts of HONG Chun Ung. He shows two depictions of
Mount Baekdu in all its majesty and gravity: the mountain
seen from far away, and the lake within its snowy edged
crater. The unusual colours shine like lacquer, a specificity
of Korean woodcut.
The Baekdusan (“san” meaning mount) has a great
symbolic value both for North and South Korea, since it is
seen as a sacred place where the origin of the Korean
nation lies. Here is where the first kingdom of Gojoseon was
founded in 2333 BC. Also the following dynasties revered
the mountain, and even North Koreans still mystified it in a
Socialistic way by emphasizing it as the location from where
resistance against the Japanese took place and as the
birthplace of Kim Jong Il. Through the vicissitudes of history,
this mountain and its craterlake are now divided by a border
and belong half to North Korea and half to China.
The art historian Michel Poivert wrote about the Mansudae
artists: “we witness humanity rising visibly to the surface
through the softness of bodies and attitudes, seemingly
rejecting all these enduring images of authority in its heart
of hearts”. Perhaps that’s why we perceive the artists in
this exhibition as being nearest to us and most modern
precisely when they are working in the softer and more
traditional way. And we are granted an insight into a world
in which artists work under utterly different conditions.

by Verena ALVES-RICHTER