Satirical Nude Painting of Park Geun-hye Leads to Clash In Yeouido

This seems to me to be pretty sexist because I cannot remember a male Korean president being depicted like this and celebrated by an opposition party:

Some people, presumed to be members of a conservative civic group, rush to the assembly building in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Tuesday to damage the painting “Dirty Sleep” by flinging it to the ground. [YONHAP]
After the display of a satirical painting depicting a nude President Park Geun-hye the main opposition Democratic Party on Tuesday decided to refer its lawmaker, Pyo Chang-won, to its ethics panel for hosting the exhibition.

About 20 people, presumed to be members of a conservative civic group, rushed on Tuesday to the lobby of the Lawmakers’ Office Building attached to the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, where the painting was on display, to damage the painting titled “Dirty Sleep” by flinging it to the ground.

The artists participating in the exhibition, including Lee Guyeong, who made the painting, then gathered at the building to issue a statement demanding compensation for the damages and respect for freedom of expression.

The exhibition started on Friday and the painting quickly became the talk of the town.

The painting’s composition is generally based on the 19th-century French painter Edouard Manet’s famous “Olympia”(1863).

In it, Park is lying on a bed and her long-time friend, Choi Soon-sil, is offering up a bouquet of syringes while the Sewol ferry is seen out a window sinking into the sea.

The painting portrays the suspicion that Park was sleeping or receiving cosmetic treatment during the April 2014 Sewol ferry sinking. Park’s head is combined with a nude body from the painting “Sleeping Venus”(1510) by Italian Renaissance master Giorgione, which inspired Titian’s “Venus of Urbino” and later Manet’s “Olympia.” Unlike in “Olympia,” which is distinguished by the woman looking directly at the viewer, in the new work Park looks down, as if in shame.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

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Smokes
Smokes
7 years ago

Bleh, I don’t say this often but.. I don’t want to see those women nude. :envy:

Anyhoo, I’m not a fan of displaying politically instigative art in government buildings. Put it in a private art gallery or something. Sexist? Beats me, guess it depends on what the former male pres’es have been scandalized with and whether or not it could’ve been shown in an equally sexually uhh. demeaning manner. Also keep in mind you can’t go too far back in Korea’s history lest you cross that line where doing something like this would’ve gotten you disappeared pretty quick and forever (oh I dunno circa her father). 🙄

Final note, look at what went down in the US with the painting of the police depicted as pigs. Did anyone damage the art itself? Now look above.. yeah they still have some growing up to do in the RoK. 🙄

Haga Akane
Haga Akane
7 years ago

Is that supposed to be Park and Choi scissoring?? If so, that’s kind of funny!

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