Satirical artist Hong joins FP Top 100 Global Thinkers list
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Hong Sung-dam
By Chung Ah-young
Korean artist Hong Sung-dam, perhaps best known for his painting satirizing President Park Geun-hye, has been selected as one of the Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2014. “A World Disrupted: The Leading Global Thinkers of 2014” was conducted by the magazine based on a survey of its readers.
In the sixth annual special issue, Hong has been included in the artist category for his “poking at power with a brush.”
The 59-year-old stirred controversy recently over his painting, “Sewol Owol,” which was due to be displayed in a special exhibition: “Sweet Dew ― 1980 and After” to mark the 20th anniversary of the Gwangju Biennale from Sept. 5 to Nov.9.
The painting alludes to the Sewol ferry sinking and the 1980 Gwangju massacre which both took place in May, pronounced “Owol” in Korean.
The 10.5-meter-wide mural portrays the president who has just given birth to a baby resembling her late father, Park Chung-hee, the autocrat who ruled the country for nearly two decades prior to his 1979 assassination.
The President is also described as a scarecrow controlled by her late father and presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon.
The Gwangju city government asked Hong to revise the portrayal of the president as a scarecrow. He replaced it with a chicken, but this was also rejected by the city officials.
Hong then decided to withdraw his artwork from the exhibition, saying his artistic integrity was being impaired by censorship. “In the past my artworks were suppressed under dictatorships, but now it’s under the power of the municipal government. The city which was once home to human rights and culture is now left with only its name. I won’t present my artwork in this dead city,” he said.
Foreign Policy magazine’s passage on the firebrand artist noted that he was “Provocative, yes, but Hong became even more confrontational shortly after the Sewol ferry sinking, which killed almost 300 people.”
It continued: “The Gwangju Biennale, one of Asia’s most prestigious art exhibitions, often celebrates a spirit of freedom, but Hong’s latest comments may have been too direct. The biennale removed his painting for this year’s event under pressure from public officials because of its explicit political intention, according to the vice mayor of Gwangju.”
In 1989, Hong was arrested for allegedly breaking the National Security Law after sending slides of some of his work to Korean-Americans who were to attend a youth festival in North Korea.
Along with Hong, Thomas Piketty, an economist from France, also made the Global Thinkers list. The magazine gave high praise for his theory that the rate of return on capital will typically be higher than the rate of economic growth, accelerating wealth toward those who already have it.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel meanwhile was named as one of 2014’s key decision makers. Merkel was lauded for being nimble in using power, embracing sectoral sanctions, while preventing Russian President Vladimir Putin from feeling cornered as Russia provoked an all-out confrontation with the West over the Ukraine crisis.