North Korean art, and North Korean oil painting in particular, remains a comparatively niche field. More than two decades ago, founder of BaoQu Tang Gallery of Art, Philip Tse first encountered North Korean oil paintings at the Arirang Exhibition. My immediate response was one of surprise: had I somehow stepped into an exhibition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts? The works before me were profoundly different from my preconceptions of North Korean art.
He had assumed that art from North Korea would be defined by emphatic national imagery, revolutionary symbolism, or monumental scenes of industrial development. Instead, I encountered paintings shaped by Realism and Romanticism: works of restraint, lyricism and emotional sensitivity. Their gentle, intimate qualities made their origins seem almost unexpected.
It was this distance between expectation and encounter that proved so striking. Philip is unlikely to be alone in having formed such assumptions about North Korean art.
North Korean oil painting is rooted in the tradition of Russian realism, while also incorporating Eastern aesthetic sensibilities. The resulting works are often characterised by clarity, freshness and refinement. Delicate colours and quiet tonalities are used to convey the emotional and inner lives of their subjects, with women and children in everyday settings appearing frequently. Their compositions are carefully balanced, and their colour palettes are richly nuanced.
In terms of its artistic development, North Korean oil painting shares certain affinities with Chinese oil painting. Both traditions have been significantly shaped by Russian art education and its approaches to realism, figurative representation and composition.
BaoQu Tang Gallery of Art co-organises this exhibition with the Hong Kong Arts Centre, invites audiences—particularly those interested in oil painting—to move beyond familiar assumptions and encounter North Korean art on its own visual and artistic terms. It offers an opportunity to consider the cultural and artistic dimensions of the country through the works themselves. The exhibition title, “Reframing North Korea”, reflects this intention: to invite visitors to pause, reconsider established impressions, and view North Korean art from a different angle.