The Art Sonje Center is pleased to host Brian Myers to have a lecture program entitled Paranormal Talk with Alex Taek-Gwang Lee. Brian Myers will present a title of “Neither Communist nor Confucian: North Korean Art”.

Neither Communist nor Confucian: North Korean Art 
Many Western North Korea scholars claim that North Korean culture continues the pre-colonial tradition of Korean culture. They argue that the personality cult is fundamentally similar with the glorification of Korean kings in the Chosun Dynasty, and that the use of chosunhwa style painting proves that North Korean art grew organically out of Korean soil. In fact, North Korean culture reflects a worldview as well as a concept of time that are both fundamentally incompatible with Korean tradition. Its roots go back to the Japanese colonial period instead.

Brian Myers
B.R. Myers was born in the US and grew up in South Africa. He received a Ph.D. at the University of Tuebingen (Germany) in North Korean literature. His books on North Korean culture include Han Sorya and North Korean Literature (1994), The Cleanest Race (2010) and North Korea’s Juche Myth (Sthele Press, 2015). He is an associate professor in the Department of International Studies at Dongseo University, Busan, South Korea. He contributes articles on North Korea to the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other publications.

Alex Taek-Gwang Lee
Dr. Alex Taek-Gwang Lee is a cultural critic and professor in Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea. He obtained MA in philosophy from University of Warwick and PhD in Cultural Theory from The University of Sheffield. His publications include The Idea of Communism 3 with Slavoj Zizek, Theory After Althusserianism, Futurism, The Obscene Fantasy of Korean Culture, Nationalism as a Sublime Object, Deleuze as a Theatre of Philosophy, This Is What Is Called Cultural Criticism, The Impressionists, and Framing a Witch.