Shaman Painting of a Guardian God, ca. 20th century
Unknown maker, Korea
Pigment on paper, 40 1/8 × 28 1/2 in. (102 × 72.3 cm)
Conserved, 2021
Courtesy the American Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology, New York City, 70.3/6769

Korean shamanic practice embraces the natural activity of paper as it changes and deteriorates over time. Not merely painted images of gods, shaman paintings are material invitations for a god’s presence facilitated by a Korean shaman, or mansin. As such, the paintings have to be materially suitable and kept pure and clean; when a painting becomes dirty or torn, the god is invited to leave it and welcomed into a replacement painting. The former painting is then burned.