북한 조선미술박물관의 설립 경위와 초창기 전시 체계

Abstract

After establishing a new regime 1948, North Korea hastened to build national museums as part of their competition with South Korea to demonstrate the supremacy of their political system. As a means to underline its historical legitimacy and strengthen the monolithic system under Kim Il-sung through public education, North Korea pushed for the establishment of a history museum, a museum of the revolution, and an art museum. Even though the entire city of Pyongyang was essentially destroyed in the Korean War, the North Korean regime accelerated the construction of new museums through financial and technical aid provided by its neighboring socialist nations in the name of founding an ideal socialist state. Over the more than seventy years since the proclamation of its founding in 1948, the Korean Art Gallery has expanded its art collections, which were smaller than those in South Korea, in various ways. These include the purchase and donation of private collections in North Korea as well as works from overseas areas. Most of the hundreds of traditional paintings in the current collection of Korean Art Gallery were assembled during the early years of the gallery. The National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in South Korea respectively feature pre-modern and modern and contemporary artworks. In contrast, the Korean Art Gallery in North Korea exhibits works from all eras, from a copy of a tomb mural from the Goguryeo Kingdom to contemporary Joseon (North Korean) paintings. The exhibition framework allowing visitors to trace the history of Korean art in chronological order originates from the idea that contemporary artworks are produced based on the traditions of the past. This exhibition system was enhanced by on-the-spot guidance from Premier Kim Il-sung at the Korean Art Gallery on March 11, 1965. Kim not only ordered the expansion of the exhibit on a copy of a Goguryeo tomb mural, but also highly praised artworks that effectively demonstrate a sense of socialist class consciousness and others that combine drawing and color. These comments by Kim established criteria for Korean Art Gallery’s further collection and exhibition and provided guidelines for creating contemporary North Korean paintings.