For the 2023 Art Basel in Basel edition, Curator Giovanni Carmine lists British-Nigerian Artist, Yinka Shonibare and his piece ”The African Library’ as one of the best in the Unlimited section for large-scale art.
Choosing the highlights from the 76 large-scale works that make up Art Basel’s Unlimited section is “particularly difficult this year”, says the curator Giovanni Carmine, “because I think we have amazing pieces”.
The African Library
Presented by Goodman Gallery, The African Library is a commemoration of the fight for independence across the African continent. The installation includes hardback books covered in Dutch wax printed cotton textile. Along the spines of many of these books are printed the names of notable figures from the continent’s past and present. Highlighted are those who supported and fought for independence, including Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Taytu Betul and Funmilayo Ransome Kuti. Other books have the names of preeminent Africans who since self-governance have helped to shape the modern identity of the continent. The African Library is inspired by the emancipation of the African continent and the changes which have taken place since the departures of the ruling European powers. It also looks at the ways the continent continues to try and shake off the colonial legacies and emerge as a modern self-governed continent. This part of the installation highlights the aspirations of various philosophers to peacefully create a new, independent and unified Africa.
Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (b. London, UK, 1962) moved to Lagos, Nigeria at the age of three. He returned to the UK to study Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London and Goldsmiths College, London, where he received his Masters in Fine Art.
Over the past decade, he has become well known for his exploration of colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalization. Working in painting, sculpture, photography, film and installation, Shonibare’s work examines race, class and the construction of cultural identity through incisive political commentary on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe, and their respective economic and political histories. Shonibare uses wry citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities.
In 2002, he was commissioned by Okwui Enwezor to create one of his most recognised installations, Gallantry and Criminal Conversation for Documenta XI. In 2004, he was nominated for the Turner Prize and in 2008, his mid-career survey commenced at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney touring to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. In 2010, his first public art commission, Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London.
In 2013 Shonibare was elected a Royal Academician. Works recently shown at the RA have included the RA Family Album, which was used to wrap Burlington Gardens during the refurbishment of the RA, and the room he curated as part of the 2017 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. His sculpture Wind Sculpture VI was also displayed in the RA courtyard during that exhibition.
Shonibare’s forthcoming new commission with the Public Art Fund, Wind Sculpture (SG) I, is currently on display at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park (until 14 October 2018).
His work is included in notable museum collections including Tate, London; the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago among others.
