North Korea's Public Face
Subtitle: 20th-Century Propaganda Posters from the Zellweger Collection
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 79
ISBN-13: 9789881902405
Subjects: Political posters; Propaganda; Art, korean; Art, exhibitions
Description: Stylistically influenced by communist brutalist propaganda and ideologically informed by the core work on North Korean art -- Kim Jong Il's 1992 publication Treatise on Art (Misullon) -- all of these state-commissioned posters promote 'correct' forms of socialist realism, thereby documenting the socio-political and economic policies communicated from the Leader to the North Korean people. In so doing, daily activities are aligned with political beliefs; for example, the metaphorical configuration of rice farming with the cultivation of socialism. Beyond their overtly ideological character, the posters confer messages related to practical agricultural, industrial and social developments, while portraying a distinctly human picture of the varied urban and rural communities. Altogether, the imagery displayed offers insights into a country that few have visited and from which first-hand information remains sporadic and inconsistent at best.