Exploring North Korean arts

After the enormous success of "Flowers for Kim Il Sung," the collection with 304 pages and 50 figures offers a unique view of the North Korean art scene, as well as insights into the ways of working and environmental conditions in which art at the interface of the specifics of the local political system is created . As fascinating as a science-based view of an otherwise closed country. Editor: Rüdiger Frank, Professor of East Asian Economy and Society at the University of Vienna. Publisher's note.

Exploring North Korean Arts offers the most ambitious appraisal of the arts in North Korea, from fine art, music and literature to aspects of design such as stamp design and book illustration. Thoroughly researched and handsomely designed, this volume opens up a little-known world of creativity, and addresses head-on the politically compromised circumstances of the arts under military rule. Publisher's note.

Published on the occasion of the eponymous international symposium at the MAK Vienna, 3-4 September 2010 in the context of the MAK exhibition Flowers for Kim Il Sung, May 19-September 19, 2010.

On the art of presenting unfamiliar art -- The political economy of North Korean arts -- DPRKrazy, sexy, cool : the art of engaging North Korea -- To be an artist in North Korea : talent and then some more -- Knocking on the great gate : the "strong and prosperous country" campaign in North Korean propaganda -- Revived interest in literary heritage : changes in DPRK cultural policy -- The people's art galleries? some reflections on posters, sculpture, and monuments in the DPRK -- The challenges of forming a museum collection of North Korean art -- Brush, ink, and props : the birth of Korean painting -- Redefining Koreanness : North Korea, musicology, ideology, and "improved" Korean instruments -- Monuments writ small : postage stamps, philatelic iconography, and the commercialization of state sovereignty in North Korea -- Mosaic murals of North Korea -- The Korean War in children's picturebooks of the DPRK.