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[LA TIMES] “People don’t even recognize that they’re North Korean” art

February 9, 2015
A painting by Kim Yong Chol is part of the "Hidden Treasures" exhibition. (Kim Yong Chol / Springtime Art Foundation)

A painting by Kim Yong Chol is part of the “Hidden Treasures” exhibition. (Kim Yong Chol / Springtime Art Foundation)

[LOS ANGELES TIMES] — The exhibition “Hidden Treasures of North Korea Revealed” is a rare showing of the isolated country’s art in South Korea, where possession of most North Korean materials is illegal, considered by the Seoul government a threat to a fragile postwar peace. Visitors can take in 150 works by 70 North Korean artists, all of which are strictly nonpolitical and arranged according to theme: landscape, portrait, animals and the four seasons.

“When we show these works, people don’t even recognize that they’re North Korean,” said Frans Broersen, one of three Dutch collectors who purchased the art from the Pyongyang government and some directly from the artists over a series of visits and curated “Hidden Treasures.” [READ MORE]