Ideology and creativity: The artistic trajectory of Chŏng Yŏngman within the DPRK visual culture in the second half of the 20th century

Abstract

In light of the limited scholarly attention devoted to North Korean visual art in both Russian and international art history, this study is the first attempt in Russian scholarship to analyse the biography and artistic legacy of Chŏng Yŏngman (1938–1999), one of the most influential painters in the DPRK during the second half of the twentieth century and a leading figure of the Chosŏnhwa tradition. The author approaches Chŏng Yŏngman not only as a canonized representative of official North Korean art, but also as an artist with a distinct and individual creative strategy. The study focuses on his institutional and ideological status, examining the key stages of his professional formation, as well as his artistic method and stylistic evolution. The article presents a selection of Chŏng Yŏngman’s works dedicated to the representation of political leaders, with particular attention paid to the ideological dimensions of his landscape painting. Methodologically, the study is grounded in a critical distance from the subject matter, allowing Chŏng Yŏngman’s oeuvre to be considered as a significant phenomenon within North Korean artistic culture. It substantially expanded the expressive possibilities of Chosŏnhwa within a highly regulated ideological system. The source base comprises more than eighty works by the artist.