Jean Michel Basquiat's Taenghwa

  

Jean Michel Basquiat's image (top, left) reminds me of the warrior / knife-riding general spirit Janggung (right) from Kim Keumhwa's shrine at Keumhwa-dang on Kangwhado, S. Korea and another (below, left) the mudang ancestor Seongsu daeshin from Yoon Yeosul's book Searching for Origin of Folk Religion -- Painting of Shamanism. (원형을 찾아서 토속신앙의 巫俗畵|, 2004, Seoul: ICOM).

 

Coincidence? Perhaps, but I am more than ever convinced that Basquiat "saw" spirits. 

Perhaps he thought no one else knew their identities. How wrong he was!

Here's another set, including Kim Keumhwa  (right) officiating at a gut ritual featuring the Taegam, spirit of a government official. I particularly like the piece by Basquiat (left) as it illustrates the layering of costumes that a shaman may wear in the course of transitioning from presenting one spirit in quick succession after another. 

 Below you can see many "antique" taenghwa, spirit paintings, in Kim Keumhwa's pantheon. For more information about Korean shaman painting, please see my review of God in Pictures in Korean Contexts: TheOwnership and Meaning of Shaman Paintings
by Laurel Kendall, Jongsung Yang and Yul Soon Yoon in Kyoto Journal. (Honolulu. University of Hawaii Press. 2015) in Kyoto Journal #90 (February 2018).

For more information about Jean Michel Basquiat, I am happy to direct your attention to the wonderful resource Artsy!