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Category Archives: U Chi Son

Embroidery, celadon and a Juche paradise opposite the Institute of Directors

26-Aug-07
The exhibition at La Galleria is entering its last two weeks. A number of the artworks that were in the gallery last time I visited are no longer there, having found good homes ((perhaps as a result of some of the prices having been dropped)), and the opportunity has been taken to move some of the pictures around to give more prominents positions to some artists previously hidden away. But still dominating the main exhibition space is a huge composition in watercolour, painted by a team of artists led by Cha Yong Ho. 4.1 metres wide, it depicts a battle scene at the Nakdong River near the Busan perimeter during the Korean War, when the Northern forces had pushed southwards ...

But is it Art?

13-Dec-06

But is it Art?

Encounters with Painters in North Korea 5pm SOAS, 8 December 2006 Koen De Ceuster, Centre for Korean Studies, Leiden University "But is it Art"?: that was the question posed by Koen De Ceuster on Friday night at SOAS, as part of the series of talks held by the Centre for Korean Studies. The talk started from the premise that the view of North Korean art held in the West is that it is bombastic Socialist Realism: propaganda pictures of the Leaders giving advice to rosy-cheeked workers building a Juche paradise. And that's predominantly what you see, for example, in Jane Portal's book, in the British Museum, and in numerous holiday snaps of North Korea. The almost unspoken presumption is that techniques and subject-matter are ...