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Art: With Shonibare, Barnes leaps ahead

With its Ellsworth Kelly exhibition last year, the Barnes Foundation extended its timeline from its founder's death in 1951 deep into the modern period. Now its show for the British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare makes an even more audacious quantum leap, right to the heart of postmodern thinking, challenging received wisdom about subjects such as colonialism and cultural identity.

Yinka Shonibare's "The Age of Enlightenment - Antoine Lavoisier," 2008, mannequin of cotton and mixed media. The chemistry pioneer is shown in a wheelchair to impart "otherness."
Yinka Shonibare's "The Age of Enlightenment - Antoine Lavoisier," 2008, mannequin of cotton and mixed media. The chemistry pioneer is shown in a wheelchair to impart "otherness."Read more
    by By Edward J. Sozanski, Contributing Art Critic | Columnist, Inquirer
    Published 
Published 
    By Edward J. Sozanski, Contributing Art Critic | Columnist, Inquirer