Editor: Rüdiger Frank
Author: Aidan Foster-Carter, Brian R Myers, Dafna Zur, Frank Hoffmann, James E Hoare, Jane Portal, Kate Hext, Keith Howard, Koen De Ceuster, Marsha Haufler, Ross King, Rüdiger Frank, Sonja Häußler
Publisher: Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2011
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This book is a cooperation between the MAK and the University of Vienna and contains a number of in-depth essays by international writers on a wide spectrum of issues, and with much detailed background information. The relationship between art and ideology is examined, how modern and traditional values are dealt with, as well as the commercial conditions of artistic work—the market value of art. But it is also about how a country’s art is received abroad, together with the difficulties faced by a curator if he wants to show this work outside the country’s borders.
The concept of art including the question of its significance to society is explored in this compendium through the field of fine art and as well as the design of stamps, book illustrations and wall mosaics, also takes in literature and music. The book reflects the North Korean art and culture »scene« in a degree of sophistication that has not been seen before.
Source: publisher’s website
LKL adds – the volume contains the following papers:
Rüdiger Frank: The Political Economy of North Korean Arts
Aidan Foster-Carter and Kate Hext: DPRKrazy, Sexy, Cool: The Art of Engaging North Korea
Koen De Couster: To be an Artist in North Korea: Talent and Then Some More
Brian R Myers: Knocking on the Great Gate: The “Strong and Prosperous Country” Campaign in North Korean Propaganda
Sonja Häußler: Revived Interest in Literary Heritage: Changes in DPRK Cultural Policy
James E Hoare: The People’s Art Galleries? Some Reflections on Posters, Sculpture and Monuments in the DPRK
Jane Portal: The Challenges of Forming a Museum Collection of North Korean Art
Frank Hoffmann: Brush, Ink and Props: The Birth of Korean Painting
Keith Howard: Redefining Koreanness: North Korea, Musicology, Ideology and “Improved” Korean Instruments
Ross King: Monuments Writ Small: Postage Stamps, Philatelic Iconography, and the Commercialistaion of State Sovereignty in North Korea
Marsha Haufler: Mosaic Murals in North Korea
Dafna Zur: The Korean War in Children’s Picturebooks in the DPRK