Koren illustrator Jae-Hong Kim has won the 2007 Children’s Jury Prize in the prestigious Biennial of Illustration Bratislava, announced on Oct 8th. Easy to see why, judging by these lovely images (scrool down a little to see all three images): which child doesn’t like the idea of playing with umbrellas in the rain, after all? To read about how an illustration from his book Children of the East River – only available in Korean, as far as I know – has turned some heads and gone on to become an urban myth, click here. Oh the power of art!…
Jae-Hong Kim’s simphony of umbrellas reminded me of the work of another award-winning Korean illustrator, Jae Soo Liu. Yellow Umbrella, a wordless picture book accompanied by a CD of music by composer Dong II Sheen (published in the US by Kane/Miller) provides fun, geometric overviews of these whimsical objects:
“With each page, the yellow umbrella continues its journey through the neighborhood and city blocks to be joined by other multi-colored umbrellas.”
More Korean books here, for your enjoyment. Rain not included.