Sacred Paintings of Kim Ki-Chang (Woonbo)

I have a great book of postcards showing a "Collection of Sacred Paintings by Kim Ki-Chang", published by the Israel Cultural Center in Korea.  I bought it over 20 years ago while in Seoul, at the Kyobo Building basement bookstore most likely.

I apologize to non-Christian readers--this is not meant to be a post about religion, but just a sharing of art by a Korean artist.  A link to a brief biography of the artist is here.

These beautiful paintings depict the life of Christ from "The Annunciation" to "The Ascension."  Christ, and all other personages are painted as Koreans, in traditional garb from the Chosun era. 

The Birth of Jesus:

I found seeing depictions of Christ as a Korean to be wonderfully affirming of my religious identity.  Heck, he was born in the Middle East, yet has been painted to resemble a European male by artists of the same background for centuries.  Why shouldn't we get a turn!

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"

The line drawings are superb, and complemented wonderfully by the colors painted in after. 

I am sending the book to a friend who has been baptized recently.  I will miss looking through it occassionally, but I think this will have special meaning for her.  Maybe I should have let her blog about it first, but I'm not that nice, heh.

Here are some links to some of the other pictures already published online:

Christ's Baptism by John and the Birth of Jesus Christ

Mary Magdalen washes the feet of Jesus

I am afraid I don't know much about other Korean religions--I would love it if someone would post on Korean Buddhism, and the native Korean ancestor worship.  I saw some of that up close when I lived with a Korean host family, but I didn't really understand the details.

--Jomama