Mansudae Art Studio official story:

Pyongyang, November 17 1999 (KCNA):
40 years have passed since the foundation of the Mansudae Art Studio (November 17, 1959), a comprehensive art creating center of Korea. The Mansudae Art Studio covering 120,000 square metres is situated in the capital city of Pyongyang. In the past period, the studio created over 115.32 million art works including a Korean painting "evening glow of Kangson", large embroidery "Mt. Chilbo in autumn" and jade handiwork "bird cage". The sculptural art group, a predecessor of the present studio, won fame as a group of talented creators by erecting the majestic "Chollima statue" and "monument to the victorious Pochonbo battle", reflecting the spirit of Korea, in the 1960s. The studio has attained the height of development in the 1970s. At that time, General Secretary Kim Jong Il saw to it that the Mansudae Art Studio was developed to be a comprehensive art creating center which involves all forms of art. The studio thus turned into the nation's leading art producer having about 20 creating and manufacturing groups including painting, sculpture, craft-works, graphic art, industrial fine art and architectural decorative art. Since then, the creative staff there played a leading role in erecting such grand monumental edifices as the grand monument on Mansu Hill, grand monument on Lake Samji, Tower of Juche Idea, arch of triumph and monument to the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War and in producing such art works of various forms as Korean painting, ceramic craf-twork and embroidery as the masterpieces of the times. They endured particularly distinguished services for giving the most solemn appearance to the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where the President Kim Il Sung is preserved in state. The studio boasts over 100 people's artists and merited artists and many skillful creators and producers. They newly created jewel paintings of Korean style and contributed to the development of the country's art by making some 60 scientific and technological inventions and introduction such as making statue by plastic art and pipe-making method, introduction of artificial granite into the creation of plastic art works and its production method and method of making Koryo celadon by use of inlaying technique. The studio's level of creating and manufacturing statue, monument and wall painting is universally recognized. The studio has so far created more than 180 statues and monuments and scores of wall paintings on orders from more than 20 countries. The studio annually accepts scores of orders from different parts of the world. More than 6.25 million art works produced by the studio were distributed to over 100 countries. Many art works were highly appreciated at some 70 art exhibitions held in more than 30 countries. A meeting to mark the 40th anniversary of the Mansudae Art Studio took place here yesterday. A congratulatory message from the central committee of the Worker's Party of Korea to the creators, employees and officials of the studio was read out at the meeting.