Hwang Pyong Ho, PhD and People’s Artist, is a well-known artist of gilded painting. Gilded painting was not what he took up first when he started his career as an artist.

When he graduated from Pyongyang University of Fine Arts in 1968, he created Korean painting “The Military Messenger.”

The painting portrays a messenger of the Korean People’s Army courageously dashing forward on horseback across a broken bridge on a mission to convey an order of the Supreme Headquarters during the Fatherland Liberation War. The work was highly appreciated for a skilful combination of single-stroke brushwork, linear perspective and saturation, the main techniques of the Korean painting and later awarded a prize at the 11th national fine art show, to be registered as a work for the state’s collection.

This marked the start of his career as an artist of Korean painting.

Working at the Mansudae Art Studio, the country’s leading fine art production base, he created many Korean paintings of national value, including “Mt Paektu in the Morning,” “Pagyon Falls” and “Mt Kumgang above Clouds.” This earned him the fame as an artist with clear individuality and unique, vivid and true-to-life description, as well as the nicknames “Man of Passion” and “Ambitious Artist.”

One day in the mid-1980s he visited the Korean National Art Museum. What drew his particular attention during the visit was a small gilded painting titled “Peacock” which was created by Ri Jing, an artist during the feudal Joson dynasty (1392-1910). Though it was created over 500 years ago, it still preserved its original colouring emanating elegant light. According to the guide, the visitors to the museum could not take their eyes off the painting and a painting of that genre had not reappeared in the country yet.

Hwang buckled down to the research into its materials and techniques, with a firm resolve to revive that genre of painting which had vanished owing to the Japanese imperialists’ moves to obliterate the Korean culture during their occupation of Korea. After more than ten years of painstaking efforts, he discovered the traditional techniques of the painting, which he developed in keeping with the taste of the times. On the basis of this, he created his first work “Cranes in Mt Paektu” in 1998.

Gilded painting is a unique genre of representing things with pigments made with cadmium adhesive on the ground covered with a thin layer of pure gold. The painting produces peculiar screen effects according to light conditions and can be drawn on any long-lasting materials like paper, fabric, sheet metal and concrete wall. The genre of painting attracted the attention of the fine art circles as soon as it came into being.

Gilded paintings have been highly appreciated at local fine art shows and international fine art shows held in Japan, China, Germany, Italy and many other countries. Many fine art experts praised the gilded painting, saying that it can be found only in the DPRK, it is a novel and unique genre of fine art and it is a kind of painting which would remain unchanged forever.

Academic circles awarded Hwang the title of doctor of fine arts for his theory of creating gilded paintings.

His 60 gilded paintings, typically “Sobaek Stream in the Morning,” “Wild Geese on a Moonlit Night,” “Tiger in a Forest,” “A Dragon and a Fairy” and “Mythological Turtle,” left an indelible impression on the viewers at the fine art exhibition held in 2014 solely for Hwang Pyong Ho and Won Yong Son.

He presented gilded paintings “A Pine Tree and Cranes on Mangyong Hill” and “Sobaek Stream in February” to the fine art exhibition for aged artists held in April in celebration of the 113th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung .

He has produced a total of over 1 000 Korean paintings and gilded paintings, scores of which have been registered as works of national value.

Though old, he is still working full of vigour and passion.

Yang Ryon Hui