Guitao Bao (Curator/Art Critic)
We are separated from North Korea by a river, but it is difficult to communicate in depth. Even though we know these painters, we ask them to create and live in China for several months every year. But there is still no real communication. Painters are simply happy, unhappy or unhappy or unhappy to paint their paintings. They have no interest in anything other than painting, or they are interested but do not reveal it. In short, they just try to paint. Just being in the present, not discussing the future. Even, it feels like they're almost focused on the art history of their own work. Or maybe they don't think their work will be internationalized. The artists among them who cherish their feathers are even more silent, except to stick to their own style, to the greatest extent possible to satisfy the Chinese side and at the same time not to harm their own artistic characteristics. At the same time, earn the money that should be handed over to the state and have a certain income yourself. In fact, institutions that invite North Korean painters to China pay little attention to things outside the market, and although they may say what the artistic value is when selling them, in essence, they only treat these works as border trade projects.
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From the perspective of exchange, north Korean art export does exist in one-dimensionality. Whether Or not North Korean painters accurately receive information from the market or collectors, or whether the artist's own vision has changed as his work enters the international market. The responses we received were minimal. That is to say, there is no "idea" in the sense of "ideas" that are transformed by communication. Although north Korean art has been exported on a large scale for more than two decades, the market has also undergone several changes, such as the demand for Korean chinese paintings that were active before 2010 and the demand for oil paintings after 2010. This change in market demand even allows artists to change their ability to paint to cope with the market, but there is no change in "concept". Therefore, communication is active, communication is frequent, and communication can even be described in depth. But the artists collectively "withstood" the shock of the outside world, and the so-called impact can be compared with the Chinese art scene in the 1980s and 1990s. This phenomenon does not mean that one-dimensionality becomes inevitable. The fact is that the current Korean social context has achieved "control" over artists (there is no pejorative meaning here), that is, the current Korean social context is enough to maintain the artist's demands.
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For more than a decade, because the artist delegation can stay in China for a long time, it should be said that the artistic vision of many North Korean artists has been expanded through data review and creative discussion. Therefore, at this stage, art exchanges seem to have no absolute impact on the current Art Ecology of North Korea. The "stubbornness" we appreciate can be understood in a sense as their adherence to existing artistic pursuits. Interestingly, the current Chinese art market supports this insistence. Because the market demand proves that the appearance of the art they are creating is recognized by consumers and accurately loved by consumers. The truth is that their works have been sold, even those that are not ideal and need to be improved, and they are also sold in China. This point has become a key part of supporting "stubbornness". Of course, the complexity of the market perspective is beyond our scope. Obviously, since the horizon is broad and the exposure to modern and contemporary art, the possible well-known results of artistic exchanges will take time, at least for North Korean artists at present.
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Under the premise of market orientation, North Korean art has maintained its original appearance of stubbornness. Make artistic communication still in one-dimensionality. And continues to this day. If you look for a reason, it can be explained at this stage as the aesthetic identity brought by the Greater Chinese cultural circle. That is to say, the current appearance of North Korean art, at least in its largest market, China, can be "consumed", has a cultural level of acceptance, and knows that these works are created by North Korean painters. When the work appears in front of them, the viewer feels the message conveyed by the work without obstacles. If there is an analogy, that is, the same landscape painting, it is likely that the Western landscape clearly informs the different fields, more exotic. Then, North Korean landscape oil painting is more like "self-painting", more like home and hometown. So the "cultural universal" solves a lot of problems. That is to say, the so-called market phenomenon is actually a large cultural problem. Resonate with culture, be gracious because of culture, and accept because of culture. This can be counted as a clear bias in North Korean art. It seems that North Korean art has both a huge demand for Chinese art and is easily accepted because of its "cultural universality".
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As an art phenomenon or art market phenomenon, the one-dimensional degree of exchange in north Korean art output in the context of "cultural universality" will certainly last for a long time. It is also highly likely to change and is not in our old experience. It is this that is very worth looking forward to.
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Source of content (Imagasai Museum of Art)
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