During the Korean War, Korean artist Woonbo Kim Ki-chang began a series of ink paintings depicting the life of Jesus using his own country as the backdrop. “I was praying for the quick end of the Korean War and a unified peace, and soothed my painful mind with a paintbrush,” he later said.
Kim passed away in 2001, but his work was featured at a museum in Seoul in 2013. The paintings are by no means historically or Biblically accurate, but are meant to symbolize the fact that Jesus came for all cultures and ethnicities. Some have called these painting “shameless,” but I love the transcultural depiction of God in them. What do you think?
Jesus Calls His First Disciples:
Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery:
Woman Washes Jesus’ Feet With Her Tears:
Jesus’ Agony in the Garden of Gethsemene:
Jesus is Scourged at the Pillar:
Jesus’ Body is Taken to the Tomb:
Via ChurchPOP.
I think they’re beautiful. This is what the incarnation is all about- Christ’s coming to us in a form we can comprehend.
These paintings are magnificent. I spent almost seven years in Korea with the US Army. I truly love Korea and the wonderful Korean people. God bless them!