Jung-kwang or Junggwang (1935–2003) was a

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

, who became an artist known for his bizarre paintings and eccentric life style. He was born with the name Go Chang-ryul, and used that name until he became a monk at age 25. Because of his behavior, he was expelled from his

monastic order Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important role ...

in 1979. In the fall of 1977,

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Professor

Lewis Lancaster Lewis R. Lancaster (born 27 October 1932) is Emeritus Professor of the Department of East Asian Languages at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and has served as President, Adjunct Professor, and Chair of the dissertation committee at Un ...

accompanied Jung-kwang as they traveled through Korea, and published a book based on their trip. In 1979, he gave a demonstration to a high school art class, completing a painting in seconds. In 1980, Jung-kwang lectured at the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University. His work is included in collections of the

Asian Art Museum (San Francisco) The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco – Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture"About"
Asian Art Museum website. ...

, the Asia Society Gallery (Rockfeller Foundation, New York), and The

British museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. He has authored several books. According to religion life author Vincent Biondo, Jung-kwang "described himself as a 'Buddhist mop,' which gets dirty itself, but makes everything it touches clean." Jung-kwang drank

makkeolli ''Makgeolli'' ( ko, 막걸리, raw rice wine ), sometimes anglicized to makkoli (, ), is a Korean alcoholic beverage. The milky, off-white, and lightly sparkling rice wine has a slight viscosity that tastes slightly sweet, tangy, bitter, and ast ...

, a Korean alcoholic beverage, and he also smoked. He was in poor health for about five years prior to his death on the day after his 68th birthday. He was cremated in

Yangsan Yangsan () is a city in Gyeongsangnam-do Province, South Korea. It borders Ulsan to the northeast, Gijang-gun and Geumjeong-gu in Busan to the southeast, Gimhae to the southwest, and Miryang to the northwest. City Hall is located in Nambu-dong, ...

, South Gyeongsang province, South Korea.

References

Korean Buddhists 20th-century South Korean male artists 1935 births 2003 deaths {{SouthKorea-artist-stub