This assumption melted away in late 2016 when it was shockingly revealed that the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Sports kept a secret list of artists to exclude from all public funding. As democracy stabilized in South Korea, freedom from censorship was taken for granted. Park Chung-Hee’s regime ruthlessly went after anyone who spoke out against him, including theatre artists such as the late Pak Choyŏl, whose play O Chang-Gun’s Toenail (English translation available here), a satire of military culture and war, wasn’t performed until 1988, fourteen years after government officials blocked its intended premiere. But no one at the time imagined that the government would directly target an artist. Some of these groups picketed Birds for insulting Korea’s “national heroes,” while the conservative media denounced the Left’s predominance in the arts. Both President Parks had fanatic supporters-especially the father, who ruled South Korea as a military dictator for eighteen years from 1961 to 1979. Park had staged an adaptation of Aristophanes’ Birds in 2013 that caused a stir over several lines that poked fun at former President Park Chung-Hee and his daughter, who had won the presidential election earlier that year. Park Geun-Hyung, a respected, award-winning playwright and director, was denied funding by Arts Council Korea at the last minute, and a production he was scheduled to direct for the National Gugak Center was abruptly canceled around the same time. The first signs of widespread government censorship appeared in 2015. Photo: Black Tent Facebook Page (used with permission) “The Drawer Boy” and Another Way of Telling History 2nd September 2022.
Another friend, Ivan, though burdened by his own problems, allows himself to be pulled into this disagreement. To Marc, the painting is a joke, but Serge insists Marc doesn’t have the proper standard to judge the work. It’s about five feet by four, all white with white diagonal lines. One of Marc’s best friends, Serge, has just bought a very expensive painting.
How much would you pay for a white painting? Would it matter who the painter was? Would it be art?
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