Modern magic (Studies of African art from Picasso’s collection) IV
(2020-2021)

• Yinka SHONIBARE

The bold and vibrantly coloured textile quilts of Modern magic employ embroidery and appliqué techniques of harlequin diamonds – a nod to their recurrence in Pablo Picasso’s work and to Yinka Shonibare’s own identification as an art world ‘trickster’ – with mask designs taken directly from Picasso’s eclectic collection of African cultural objects. Within the patchwork, Shonibare challenges notions of cultural authenticity, engaging with the artist’s own identity as a ‘post-colonial hybrid’. As Shonibare explains, ‘Picasso was interested in appropriating from another culture, and I also appropriate from European ethnic art’.