An Artist at War

Appearing in today’s Joongang Ilbo is Andrew Salmon’s interview of Kim Song-hwan, Korea’s most famous living cartoonist.  Kim Song-hwan, whose pen name is “Gobau” (strong rock), was a high school student who worked part time as an illustrator, and was living just outside of Seoul when North Korea invaded.  Gobau painted what he witnessed.   

While the article in the Joongang Ilbo was good, it pales in comparison to the posting Andy did on his own blog To The Last Round, which also includes 25 of Gobau’s watercolors.  But the watercolors (vivid images of the first couple months of the Korean War) are not the only things of interest - so, too, are the captions explaining Gobau’s impressions as he painted the pictures even while the events he was depicting were taking place.  Here are two of the images and their captions:

“The Pale Man: NKPA root out potential enemies in Gobau’s neighbourhood. Gobau (looking on from around the corner) remembered how very pale the South Korean looked as he was surrounded by the North Korean squad; he has no idea what the man’s eventual fate was.”

“Tactical Bullock Cart: While photos and newsreels focussed on the NKPA’s formidable T34s, behind the armoured spearhead, the echelons relied on more tradtional transport – such as this well-camouflaged bullock cart. These methods were not alien to the “Great Leader” himself: Kim Il-sung had learned his warcraft in the Red Army, which, during World War II, had made effective use of horse-drawn Panje carts in the rough terrain of the Eastern Front.”

Make sure you go to Andy’s blog to read the rest of his post and to view the other 23 water colors and read their captions.