Jan. 30, 2000

Dr. Zo Zayong died on January 30, 2000. This Harvard educated architect accumulated the largest collection of Korean folk art, called min-sok-mun-hwa, in one place. He had collected these anonymous paintings from garbage dumps during the years after the Korean war when the traditional culture was despised by the taste makers. Now Zo Zayong is considered the savior of his countries art and history.  This art consisted of a huge number of tiger paintings, tigers being the Korean national animal, though not solely of course. These tigers have a peculiar distinctive presentation--they are "crazy and sweet" creatures. These tradition includes a subset of tiger paintings portraying tigers and magpies. Many times these animals are entwined around white haired sages. The whole planet is indebted to Zo Zayong for preserving this art.