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The Meaning and Ideological Character of Child Image in the North Korean Painting

  • The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art
  • Abbr : JASA
  • 2010, 32(), pp.373-402
  • Publisher : 한국미학예술학회
  • Research Area : Arts and Kinesiology > Other Arts and Kinesiology
  • Published : December 30, 2010

Hong Ji Suk 1

1단국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In 1960, Philippe Ariès suggested that the pure, innocent, light and fragile ‘Child’ concept that we know today had appeared in modern age. According to him, this ‘birth of child’ is involved inseparably with the appearance of modern family which bring up that child. Family as a kind of fence keep away external threat. Appearance of modern child and family amplified the request about private life and intimacy, and the home became refuge that could avoid external gaze and place of affection between parents and their children. In our occasion, ‘Birth of modern child-family-home’ that Ariès speaks is closely connected with ‘children movement’ of Bang Jeong-hwan at the Age of Japanese Imperialism. At this time, modern child, family, and home which Ariès said - although as a imperfect form - appears in Korean society. On these proposition, I examines the aspect that the ‘child image’ have been changed in North Korean art after 1950's. In this examination, the important thing is the fact that the request about private life and intimacy connected with the appearance of modern child-family collides with the public request of the society(social system). So Ariès claimed that the modern family relationship and the sociality are incompatible. One could be develop without the other's sacrifice. This may become problematic especially on totalitarian society such as North Korean social system after 1950's. Because the intentionality of totalitarian society which pursue the collective profit will collide with the intentionality of modern family which pursue the private isolation and comfort. In this point of view, I examined the change of child image in North Korean art in order to know how the North Korean social system correspond to the presented problem. In North Korean art, There are so many paintings emphasized the child image. Because the pure, innocent, light and fragile, lovely ‘Child image’ of modern age really in accord with the positive character to which social system want. Therefore the lovely child image became the stereotyped icon of North Korean's Juche Realism(Nam Jae-yoon, 2008). By the way, We can find important quality if we observe the historic change of child image in North Korean art. In 1970's, We can hardly find parents image in North Korean painting. At this time, the image of parents who had been with child in earlier painting have been disappeared or replaced by powerless grandmother or grandfather image. At first, we can interpret this as a victory of public or totalitarian domain in the competition between public(totalitarian) and private(familiar) domain. However, if we observe more closely, we can find the fact that vacant place of parents be occupied gradually by Great father, namely Kim Il-Sung. We can draw following conclusion from these truth. In the Juche era, The North Korean social system solved the problem - conflict of public and private domain - by the way that replace parent's image by the Kim Il-Sung, the Great parent's image. As a result, the child image painting of that time looks uncanny feudal and modern image overlapped. This is the North Koran model sutured the conflict of public/private of family/society. But in the late 1980's, a changes occurred. From this time, Image of parents and happy family which had disappeared begins to appear again on North Korean painting. Now. North Korean social system cannot suture the conflict of public/private of family/society by simple and clear way. we may regard this fact as a symptom of a change or crisis of North Korean's social system.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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