The African mask, an object of deep cultural and spiritual significance, has sparked a defining dialogue in Western art throughout the 20th and 21st centuries – from Picasso’s Cubist revolution to Basquiat’s expressive engagement. Now, Yannick Ackah continues this discourse, offering a new interpretation of the mask.
In his solo exhibition Jungle of Encounters (March 29 – June 14, 2025, Galerie Melbye-Konan, Hamburg), Yannick Ackah (1992, Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire) places the mask at the center of his large-scale works. His canvases are dense, pulsating webs of color, form, and material: newspaper clippings, texts, and symbols merge into collage-like surfaces with depth and dimensionality. His art weaves together African cultural traditions with influences from Western art history.
The central motif of the mask in Ackah’s work spans from its African origins to its appropriation by Picasso and the Parisian modernists, and onward to Basquiat and the graffiti art of the 1980s. The European avant-garde discovered new means of expression in African masks and sculptures. Picasso, inspired by these masks, marked a turning point in art history with Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). Basquiat explored African and African American identity, using the mask as a metaphor for Black identity in a predominantly white art world. In search of his own intergenerational cultural heritage, he traveled to Côte d’Ivoire in 1986 and shared his art with the local community.
Ackah picks up on these influences but pushes them further. Like Picasso, he uses masks for abstraction; like Basquiat, he addresses identity and artistic decolonization. Yet his approach is unique: he brings the mask out of the ethnographic museum and into an active contemporary context. Ackah creates a world where the boundaries between African culture and postcolonial identity dissolve. The viewer is immersed in a vibrant atmosphere infused with personal, social, and historical narratives.
As part of a new generation of African artists, Ackah embeds postcolonial discourse into contemporary art. His work demonstrates that cultural exchange between Africa and the West is not a one-way street – Africa is an active agent in global art history. After completing his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Abidjan in 2020, Ackah quickly gained international recognition. His works are held in prestigious collections worldwide, including in France, Germany, the USA, Japan, and South Korea. He has exhibited in Mouvement (Institut Français, Hamburg) and Persona (curated by Harald Falckenberg). In 2025, he was nominated for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize.
