Chosŏnhwa

also: Joseon painting · Juche realism

style c. 1945-present North Korea East Asia

Chosŏnhwa (Joseon painting, "Korean painting"), also called Juche realism, is the state-sanctioned painting style of North Korea. It modernizes the traditional brush-and-ink idiom within the ideological criteria of Juche, the regime's doctrine of self-reliance, adapting socialist realism to Korean materials. After 1945 the young state debated oil against ink; by the mid-1960s Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il had made ink painting the national form - "national in form, socialist in content" - rejecting both the colonial Nihonga legacy and the monochrome literati tradition. Chosŏnhwa keeps brush, line and hanji (mulberry paper) but adds bright, naturalistic color, shading and linear perspective. Taught at Pyongyang Art College and produced by state studios such as Mansudae, its subjects glorify leaders, labor, harvests and battle, with figures held in calm, determined resolve.

North Korean genre painting: naturalistic figures and bright, saturated color in the state style's calm, resolved mood
North Korean genre painting: naturalistic figures and bright, saturated color in the state style's calm, resolved moodCC BY-SA 4.0 (credit: David Clayton Ellsworth) · source
Wall painting of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at Mount Paektu's crater lake: idealized leaders against a bright, perspectival landscape
Wall painting of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at Mount Paektu's crater lake: idealized leaders against a bright, perspectival landscapeCC BY 2.0 (credit: Kok Leng Yeo) · source
A painter at work in a North Korean studio: brush line laid down on paper before bright color
A painter at work in a North Korean studio: brush line laid down on paper before bright colorCC BY-SA 4.0 (credit: David Clayton Ellsworth) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Naturalistic figures and landscapes rendered in brush and ink on hanji paper
  • Bright, saturated color grafted onto the traditional ink idiom
  • Linear perspective and shading used to build three-dimensional realism
  • Idealized subjects: leaders, collective labor, harvest abundance, battle remembrance
  • Clear focal-point composition with confident, outlining lines
  • Working figures fixed in calm, determined resolve

Key figures

  • Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) — Head of state who directed ink painting to become the country's national art form
  • Kim Jong Il (1941-2011) — Codified the style's principles in his treatise On Fine Art (1991)

Sources

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