June 2021
North Korean Sports Poster Series | 5
The North Korean Sports Poster Series is a collection of sports-related North Korean propaganda posters. Koryo Studio delves deep to explore the symbolism behind the works.
English translations provided.
Title: Everyone is Qualified! // 모두다 합격하자!
Banners: September – October are the months for assessing people’s physical fitness. // 9-10월은 인민체력검정월간이다.
Artist: N/A
Other: Korean Workers’ Party Press, Pyongyang Comprehensive Printing Factory; “발행 조선로동당출판사 인쇄 평양종합인쇄공장”
Year: N/A
North Korean Sports Poster
“Everyone is Qualified!”
The Artwork
This is an original artwork. The medium is gouache on stiff paper, which will have had the border text (date/artist print factory etc) typeset by hand.
Individual characters and numbers are cut out and glued into position in the margin before being sent for offset printing.
The artist is very likely to be Kye Sang Hua who energises the poster with the powerful lunge of the runner as he breaks through the tape.
The poster is from circa the 1980s. We see sports such as high jump, pitching, horizontal bars, and swimming.
KOREAN TRANSLATION
높이뛰기, 공던지기, 철봉, 수영, 종목.
