Yinka Shonibare CBE

This work has been kindly donated by the artist

“Picasso was interested in appropriating from another culture, and I also appropriate from European ethnic art.” - Yinka Shonibare  

The present lot, entitled Hybrid Mask (Punu) III, is a striking example of Yinka Shonibare’s playful and political considerations of colonialism, postcolonialism, and cultural identity within the context of globalisation. Based on masks found in Pablo Picasso’s collection, Shonibare describes the series of works as a “Picasso in reverse”, interrogating ideas of cultural authenticity and examining the relationship between African aesthetics and Western modernism.  

The hand-painted vibrant greens across the mask reference batik fabrics, a common motif across Shonibare’s practice. The batik, a brightly coloured fabric dyed using wax-resist, is used across his practice as a poignant cultural identifier and a metaphor for the colonial relationships woven into the material. Mass-produced in Holland and then sold on to West Africa in the 19th Century, the fabric has come to implicate colonial trade, but also a reflection of African tastes, aesthetics, culture, and patronage.  

Born in the United Kingdom to Nigerian parents, Yinka Shonibare CBE, grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. He studied Fine Arts at Byam Shaw School of Art and in 1991, he received his MFA from Goldsmiths College, graduating as a member of the Young British Artist (YBA) movement. Shonibare currently lives and works in London. Today, his work is held in the collections of major institutions such as the Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Museum of Modern Art, Moderna Museet, the Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Modern Art Rome, and VandenBroek Foundation.