“What I see in African sculptures is beauty, a challenge, a complete story, a great mystery that I try to solve through my work with lines, brushstrokes and also with colour.”
—Yannick Ackah
Hailing from the Ivory Coast, Yannick Ackah is one of Africa's most prized young artists. The present work was exhibited at the artist’s first solo exhibition Yannick Ackah: La Poésie D’Existence at Galerie Melbye-Konan in 2022. Untitled shows 4 African masks and figures from varying perspectival viewpoints as they are placed on cabinets for display. These masks are set against an ornate and patterned maroon and crimson background. Ackah’s colour palette is masterfully chosen as brilliant hues of red, turquoise, green and white capture the beauty and vitality of his subject.
Untitled is a tapestry of Ackah’s artistic, cultural and social influences and heritage. Pablo Picasso influenced the young artist; here this is seen in the multiple perspectives of the enlarged African mask and the green statuette, the use of materials like book covers, newspaper and magazine articles, and fabrics and cloths. Adding textural quality, these materials disrupt the picture plane and give the work a sort of three-dimensionality. In Untitled, Ackah reclaims the motif of the African mask, specifically that of the West African tribes like the Baoulé, Kwele and Dan, from modernist artists like Picasso. In this way, Ackah’s work makes socio-political statements on racism, the unhealed wounds of colonialism and cultural appropriation within the Western canon.