The artist on fostering hope, why he doesn’t want a retrospective, and making work inspired by Picasso’s African art collection
The British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare makes work – often in sculpture, painting and tapestry – that looks unflinchingly at race, class and colonialism. The 58-year-old, who is partly paralysed after contracting a virus of the spine in his late teens, was one of the original YBAs and was shortlisted for the Turner prize in 2004. His 2010 sculpture Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, a scaled-down replica of HMS Victory with sails made from his signature batik fabric, was one of the most memorable artworks on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth and now has a permanent home outside the Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Shonibare was recently given the 2021 Art Icon award by the Whitechapel Gallery.
Congratulations on becoming the Whitechapel’s eighth Art Icon. You join a storied list of artists, including Howard Hodgkin and Rachel Whiteread…
I’ve been a fan of that gallery for a long time, so I feel particularly honoured. I didn’t even know that anyone noticed what I did!
from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3fmSSfA
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