Andreas Gursky

Sprüth Magers, Munich

Private Collection

Sale: Christie’s, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction, 14 February 2012, Lot 38

Private Collection, Germany

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2012

London, Sprüth Magers, Andreas Gursky, 2007, another example exhibited

Munich, Haus der Kunst; Istanbul, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art; Sharjah, Sharjah Art Museum; Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria; and Moscow, Ekaterina Foundation, Andreas Gursky, 2007-08, pp. 132-33, another example illustrated in colour, and another example illustrated on the front and back covers

Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, Andreas Gursky, 2007-08, pp. 94-95, another example illustrated in colour

Jan Schmidt-Garre, ‘One-Half Revolution and Everything Turns Red: Andreas Gursky in North Korea’, 032c, No. 13, Summer 2007, pp. 107 and 109, another example illustrated in colour

Exhibition Catalogue, Darmstadt, Institut Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, Andreas Gursky: Architecture, 2008, p. 70, another example illustrated in colour

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is brighter and more vibrant in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Very close inspection reveals a small scratch to the centre right hand side of the frame of the left panel and some minor unobtrusive wear to all four corners of the frames of both panels.
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Executed in 2007, Andreas Gursky’s Pyongyang II is a breathtaking diptych, which powerfully depicts on an epic scale one of most extravagant, regimented performances in the world; the Arirang Festival. Celebrating the artistic and gymnastic abilities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the extravaganza of watching this extraordinary spectacle is vaunted by the country’s leaders as a symbol of its people’s adoration for their country and their rulers. Part of a five-part sequence of works that depict one of the last outposts of communist dictatorship in the world, the present work stands in stark contrast to the charged capitalism that is at the very core of the artist’s infamous Stock Exchange series. Masterfully blending traditional photographic techniques with more contemporary means of image manipulation, Pyongyang II is Gursky at his finest. 

Originally created to commemorate the birth of North Korea's former leader, Kim Il Sung, in this scrupulously choreographed parade, tens of thousands of individually chosen gymnasts, precisely execute a sequence of synchronised moves which radiate waves of energy around the Rungrado May Day Stadium, the largest stadium of its kind in the world. In the background, thirty thousand strictly disciplined school children hold up sheets of card of a different colour at the appointed time to create a monumental human mosaic of patriotic symbols and slogans. In the present work, thousands of tiny hands have flipped over cards to reveal two diametrically opposing scenes: on the left hand side a flock of peaceful white doves, an international symbol of freedom, fly into an immense cobalt blue sky; and on the right hand side two of Kim Il Sung’s menacing pistols point their barrels towards these symbols of freedom; whilst troops wielding bayonets parade around the ground below. Those who actually attended the 2007 Arirang Festival staunchly maintain that the image of the pistols preceded that of the doves, lending the narrative an optimistic tone rather than that here illustrated by Gursky. Indeed, the artist always strives to avoid political commentary, remarking: “Pictures in which the propaganda is too obvious would not be suitable because they are far too narrative. I just want to show that this is a kind of ersatz religion, a staging of collective happiness, and how it looks" (Andreas Gursky quoted by Nina Zimmer, 'Pyongyang: A State of Exception' in: Exhibition Catalogue, Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, Andreas Gursky, 2007-08, p. 73). 

Abstaining from the political, in Pyongyang II Gursky trains his lens on the hypnotic abstract patterns that emerge from the crowd at this spellbinding event. In so doing, he continues his career-long investigation into the unconscious and collective patterns inherent to human activity. In his comparable images of dance halls and pop concerts in the West, Gursky reveals crowds of revellers united by music, each individual dancing spontaneously in the pursuit of collective leisure. In the Pyongyang cycle, by direct contrast, these patterns are not innate to the collective; instead they are imposed on the individuals by the totalitarian regime. In Pyongyang II, Gursky draws our attention to the deviations that destabilise the homogeneity of the regimented pattern such as the few dancers that are out of sync with their neighbours. With a skill that only Gursky’s God’s eye photography permits, Pyongyang II expertly and innovatively comments on the potentially imperfect elements of communism, placing it amongst the very best of the artist’s works.