For the purpose of raising the standard of our fine art culture at the same time exalting our pride in our national art, the exhibition is held annually under the ageis of the government, and excellent pieces of fine art produced by various kinds of artists throughout the country will be on display during the period.

The National Fine Art Exhibition which was held in 1949 for the first time had to be suspended for three consecutive years, due to the Korean War, until 1953 when it was resumed. It was decided last year that entries to the exhibition be classified into eight divisions:
   1) concrete Oriental paintings;>BR>    2) abstract Oriental paintings;
   3) concrete Western paintings;
   4) abstract Western paintings;
   5) concrete sculpture;
   6) abstract sculpture; and
   7) calligraphy;
   8) handicrafts.

From this year on, special prizewinning works and those produced by invited or recommended artists and by members of the screening committee in the painting and calligraphy divisions will be put on public exhibit also in a major provincial city every year after the event closes in Seoul. This year, those works as specified in the above will be exhibited in Taegu for two weeks. Photography and architecture are excluded from the national exhibition, and the First National Exhibition for Photography and Architecture was held separately this year as another annual event.

In the hope that great many excellent works will be entered to the forthcoming exhibition, thus contributing a great deal to the development of our fine art, the Ministry of Communications is to release a commemorative postage stamp on the occasion.