In honor of North Korea's announcement that they possess a nuclear arsenal, here is a gallery of North Korean propaganda images. They were apparently taken from two books that were purchased near the North Korea-China border. Quick! Somebody break the oil paint embargo so we can have some more patriotic North Korean paintings.
Besides the obvious restrictions on style and content, North Korean artists face another barrier to creativity; a critical shortage of materials and funding. While the nation has never been wealthy, since the end of the Cold War North Korea has lost much needed financial and material support form the former Soviet Union and from China, making art a relatively low priority. Many artists that had focused on oil painting in the past have had to refocus their energies on more traditional “Chosun” painting with inks, rather than expensive and hard to come by oil paints.Link
