Among the established artists in the DPRK is Sin Hak Son, Kim Il Sung Prize and Kim Jong Il Prize laureate and People’s Artist.

During his nearly five-decade career Sin took part in creating sculptures for the Grand Monument on Mansu Hill, the Samjiyon Grand Monument, the Monument to the West Sea Barrage and other monumental structures, and sculpted scores of pieces of national value.

Start

Sin Hak Son was born into a musician’s family as the eldest son of six siblings in 1945 in Hoeryong City, North Hamgyong Province.

His father, Sin Tong Jin, found his little son was good at describing things literally and told him that he’d better grow to be a poet. He often took time to assess his son’s verses. Once Sin, while playing around his father’s workplace, happened to be led by an artist into a studio in which the air was filled with the smell of oil paints and the walls were hung with pictures finished or unfinished. It was the first experience he had ever had with fine art, and since then he had developed an interest in it.

“As a child I sort of had a sense of poetry and aptitude for music, but I was more attached to fine art. So father approved of my taking up drawing, saying that fine art is also a form of art,” Sin recalled.

During his middle school days, he joined the fine art group and threw himself into drawing with an ambition to become a successful artist.

What I Love Most

“Sin is a passionate artist who brings emotion into sculpture,” said a renowned Chinese artist on his visit to the DPRK in 2019.

In the early 1960s the Chollima movement was gaining momentum in the DPRK. As a nod to this, the statue of Chollima (a legendary winged horse galloping 400 km a day) was being built on Mansu Hill in the capital city of Pyongyang.

“As a middle school student, I was so mesmerized by the giant statue and I felt a strong impulse to have a try on sculpture,” Sin said.

Later he was admitted to Pyongyang University of Fine Arts as he wished and studied at the faculty of sculpture. After graduation he was appointed to the Mansudae Art Studio.

Sculpture requires great ability for describing things. Sin always carried a sketch book with him wherever he went, and drew as regularly as he kept a diary.

On holidays he used to visit a library and the like to get information about the global trend of fine arts. Not long after he started his creative career, he had a chance to participate in working out layouts of the grand monuments to be built across the country. He began to cut a conspicuous figure in this work.

When he was tasked with a layout of the monument to the West Sea Barrage, he formatively produced a huge column of water and a manly figure braving rough seas, giving an artistic portrayal of the nature-harnessing strength of humans.

In those days he once said to his girlfriend: “What I love most is sculpture, and you next.” Such remarks brought her to tears.

He was so proficient in sculpture that he could do with any materials–stone, metal, plaster and wood. Sculpture was part and parcel of his life. His works such as “Fierce Battle,” “Two Servants,” “Abbot Sosan” and “Admiral Ri Sun Sin” were awarded special and first prizes at national fine art shows and exhibitions.

He was invited to foreign countries to sculpt many monuments and portraits, namely the monument to the Kaysone Phomvihane Museum and the statue of Kaysone Phomvihane.

Blessed Life

Six years ago, Sin Hak Son at his advanced age sang “My Blessed Life” in an artistic performance given to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Mansudae Art Studio, winning enthusiastic applause.

Sin had headed the merited sculpture production unit and the creative department of the Mansudae Art Studio and long worked as an executive member of the Central Committee of the Artists Union of Korea.

In his later years he turned to oil painting. His deep knowledge of nature and rich emotion helped him find his voice in the painting as well.

After retirement in 2020 he travelled around farms in the suburbs with his wife to look for ideas and materials for painting. In the course of this, he produced his maiden work “Cooperative Fields in the Evening.” He went on to draw “Against All Odds,” “Riverside in the Twilight,” “Horses in the Fields,” “A Wooden Bridge in the Forest” and other works. His works are so emotional in description, fresh in colours and peculiar in techniques that they wow experts and viewers. Some of them belong to the permanent collection of the Korean National Art Museum.

He presented “Farm Fields Laden with Rich Crops” and “Pleasant Camping Life” to the fine art exhibition for aged artists held in April at the Pyongyang International House of Culture to celebrate the 113th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung . As to his achievements his colleagues said Sin has been reborn into an oil painter.

Sin still strives hard to create good works that depict the appearance of the thriving nation and the breath of the times.

Ham Kwang Hyok