Exhibition of North Korean Art : Curated by Professor Muhn
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Contemporary North Korean Art
June 18 – August 14, 2016
THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALIST REALISM
June 18:
5- 6 pm GALLERY TALK
6- 9 pm OPENING RECEPTION
American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
Join Georgetown Professor, artist, and curator BG Muhn for a tour of two exhibitions of North and South Korean contemporary art and a discussion on the impact of culture on the artistic style of each republic. Meet and mingle with artists, curators and museum patrons at the Summer opening reception. Events are free and open to the public.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
Art is huge in North Korea. The forms and struc-ture of contemporary North Korean art, a central and highly developed dimension of the national culture, are largely unknown to the outside world. Whether a true sense of art as understood in the West exists or not in North Korea has remained an open question for most people outside the DPRK.This exhibition, the first of its kind in the U.S., seeks to broaden understanding ofNorth Korean art beyond stereotypes of pro-paganda and kitsch to show sophisticatedand nuanced expressive achievements. Itinvestigates previously unrevealed evidenceof North Korean artistic experimentation andthat nation’s particular evolution of SocialistRealism within its own culturally homoge-neous context.Special focus is given to the development of Chosonhwa, North Korea’s predominant painting medium that is revered as the na-tion’s most refined. Chosonhwa is traditional Oriental ink-and-brush painting on rice paper that absorbed Socialist Realism influences in the 1950s and has since progressed to be-come its own distinct art form. Contemporary North Korean Art: The Evolution of Social Realism is curated by BG Muhn, artist and professor at Georgetown University. The exhibition is the culmination of five years research, on-site studio visits to Mansudae Art Studio, the largest state-run studio in the world, in Pyongyang, and interviews with artists and art historians.