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<div>Thanks George. In the first 'quick draft' of my last email to the
list I had included a joking remark that Jane Portal could then hang
Sully's Washington battle scene together with the Kim & Kim
painting, just the way you presented them. (We met in Vienna last
month.) *But* I then "corrected" myself as I thought what
was the 'famous' Sully piece at the MFA was the one entitled
"Washington Crossing the Delaware" -- see here, about 2/3
down the page:</div>
<div>http://www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/sully.php</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>------ q u o t e (from above URL) ------</div>
<div>Sully was commissioned to create a full length portrait of George
Washington and instead, painted a massive historical scene of<b>
Washington crossing the Delaware</b>. This is<b> considered to be his
most famous painting</b>, though at the time, it cost Sully a great
deal of frustration and expense. The patron that originally
commissioned this piece from him found it too large and Sully was left
with this massive composition and no one to buy it. This painting is
now housed at the Museum of Fine arts in Boston.</div>
<div> <img
src="cid:p0624060ec8cfc187be5a@[192.168.1.65].1.0"></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>------------------------------------</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Now, looking at the MFA website link you just provided, this
above website obviously puts the wrong image for the text that goes
with it! The more famous Sully painting was obviously "The
Passage of the Delaware" (as mentioned in the description). I
thus ended up thinking it must be one of the many Hicks paintings that
you had posted. Furthermore, the small size of the posted image did
not allow for much of an analysis -- that's why I referred to the
large online image (of another Hicks version) when talking about the
treatment of colors and background.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Taken all together, this certainly devaluates my references to
folk art all together (IN THAT COMPARISON). Yet, it does not put any
weight onto the comparison of the two paintings (Sully's and the North
Korean) in itself. From an art historical point of view these are
stylistically far apart, and also far apart (as I tried to explain)
from the point of historical development ... that is, how the North
Korean painters ended up with that kind of image. It may well work for
a popular magazine like the<i> Economist</i> to present such a
comparison (but looking this up, the magazine did not do that), and I
can understand that many people might "go for it" -- but it
is not a serious approach, it is not an art historical analysis, just
mockery. Was it meant that way? It only works *to some degree* by
blending out many other facts and circumstances. However, some time in
the 1990s, as I mentioned in another private email to you, I saw a
similar piece in one of the South Korean art magazines (maybe<i>
Wôlgan misul</i> or<i> Kana at'û</i> -- it would take me too long to
locate that now), where the very same North Korean painting had also
been compared to a historical battle scene painting, either one
showing Napoleon or also Washington. Comparing paintings that are 170
years apart only goes so far ... that is, not very far. EVEN THOUGH we
talk about North Korea, and everyone and their grandma seem to feel
the urge to be more flashy than North Korean propaganda itself, this
is not helpful in understanding North Korean art--and thereby
understanding what kind of developments went on in North Korea, and
how all the various pieces relate to each other. I personally would
prefer to make the joke or ironic remark AFTER having tried to do a
serious analysis, not to start an analysis. But this is just me. Yet,
I hope at least those in Korean Studies would agree.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Best wishes,</div>
<div>Frank</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Post Scriptum:</div>
<div>Photoshop always does the job to get the message out far more
brilliant, no need to bother with art history then :)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><img src="cid:p0624060ec8cfc187be5a@[192.168.1.65].1.1"></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>--------------------------------------<br>
Frank Hoffmann<br>
http://koreaweb.ws</div>
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