Introduction to North Korean paintings  North Korean Jewel paintings
This is a typical North Korean technique. The painting is made with coloured stone powders on rigid panels. No other painting is more time-consuming to produce: in fact, it takes many weeks to finish one. In the past the technique was called "Powder Painting", but Kim Il Sung changed it to "Korean Jewel Painting" to point out that it was developed in Korea using precious Korean stones. Until recently Korean jewel paintings were made on rigid panels. Painters in Pyongyang have now succeeded in making the paintings flexible, rollable.
Such rollable jewel paintings (see photo on the left) were shown for the first time to the public, namely in Vietnam at the Nha Trang Sea Festival from June 6 - 12, 2009. More on this exhibition can be found under "News".
Korean painting, ink painting on paper This style of painting demands that the artist draw from start to finish without stopping. He cannot correct or draw over what he has painted. This style requires great skill and takes from 10 - 20 years of training. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A lot has been said and written on Korean Art and particularly on art from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea by foreigners. In contrast, Pyongyang-Painters.com asked North Korean artists to give an introduction into fine art of Korea from their perspective which we publish here:
Fine Art of Korea
The Korean nation is proud of its ancient oriental civilization with 5000-year-long history of development.
In the historical course of development, they have created a lot of art heritages which have enriched the treasure of human culture, for example, the Korguryo tomb murals which have been listed as a world cultural heritage, Koryo celadon and percelain of the Ri Dynasty.
In modern times, the Korean fine art has developed into a popular art which suits the sentiment intrinsic to the Korean people with high pride in their time-honored history.
Thanks to the correct literary and art policy of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPR Korea Government, the Korean fine art has flourished into the Juche-based art, national in form and socialist in content.
The Korean fine art is based on the unique Korean painting style and incorporates a wide spectrum of genres.
The Korean water-colour painting is characterized by its strong, yet exquisite and vivid strokes and all other forms of Korean fine art show the independent and creative life and work of the people.
The Korean water-colour painting takes the most prominent part in the Korean fine art and exerts a considerable influence on other forms of fine art.
The oil painting with its orgin in the West has developed to suit the national taste of the Korean people. Woodcut printing, mural painting and embroidery have also taken their solid position on the basis of the unique Korean painting style.
All forms of Korean fine art, including the gigantic monuments which vividly represent the stirring present times, encourage people to active struggle and help them enrich their beautiful feelings, demonstrating the superiority of socialist realism.
Every year Korea opens a series of small and big public exhibitions and individual shows of posters, landscape paintings and other genres.
Korean Water-Colour Painting
Korean water-colour painting is one of the oriental paintings, which has a long tradition. Traditional oriental paintings of Korea, China, Japan and other East Asian countries are in common with each other in terms of material and techniques. Korean water-colour painting has long developed into a unique painting which has its own superb national characteristics along with the general features of the oriental paintings. The long tradition of the Korean water-colour painting finds its vivid expression in the fact that the Koguryo mural paintings reveal the vivid traces of Korean painting strokes. Although Korean water-colour painting went though twists and turns under the feudal fetters and the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism, it has invariably reflected the resourcefulness and sentiment of the Korean nation. It has now won high reputation throughout the world for its vivid and rich representation of the national sentiment and life. Characterized by its vividness, conciseness and delicacy, Korean water-colour painting is artistically outstanding for its bold, beautiful and exquisite strokes.
Vividness, conciseness and delicacy of Korean water-colour painting come down mainly to implication and concentration. In Korean water-colour painting, line drawing, colouring, shading, composition and perspective representation are all based on implication and concentration. The representation principles of Korean water-colour painting go along with unique strokes. Single-stroke technique and lining technique are traditional strokes which embodies the representation principles of Korean water-colour painting. One look at Korean water-colour painting leads you, before you know, into deep meditation and makes you feel the clear and delicate painting style, all because of its original representation principles. Implication and concentration are important principles, shich make it possible to simplify composition, colouring and shading in conformity with the aesthetic taste of the Korean people, thus making the composition concise, giving prominence to an object's qualitative features and presenting a vivid focal point. Through implication and concentration, the thematic object gets clear and a little touch gives you a rich feeling. Backed up by the principles of implication and concentration, Korean water-colour painting has a focus and margins which form its unique formative characteristics, present clear harmony of colours and show concise and balanced composition.
Korea Gem-Painting
Generally speaking, gem-painting is a form of art which replicates the real world onto a flat surface using natural and artificial gems together with other natural materials.
Gem-painting, of course, implies the use of natural gem and other materials, but the wording actually orginates from its brilliance, which gives you mysterious satisfaction and emotional traction.
Originally, gem-painting used stone particles, but it gradually reoriented towards the use of fine stone powder, and then of different combinations of natural materials. As for its bottom surface, it originally used only glass and stone sheet, but now it uses canvas or other fabrics, aluminium sheet, zinc sheet, plastic sheet, concrete wall and a wide range of other materials.
Korean gem-painting has fully adapted the traditional techniques of Korean painting to itself in a creative way.
Korean gem-painting has now reached a high level of its development, rich and fresh in content and material.
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Warning: Unfortunately, many fake paintings, claimed to be from North Korean painters, are sold in foreign galleries and through the internet.
Pyongyang-painters.com, however, is totally committed to sell exclusively paintings it buys from N.Korean artists known to it and does not use any middlemen.
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