"Yinka Shonibare MBE (b.1962), a British artist of Nigerian descent is best known for his dramatic tableaux of life-size, headless mannequins, gorgeously dressed in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century costumes made from elaborately patterned textiles popular in Africa. Shonibare matches the staggering, opulent beauty of his art with erudition and wit: exploring identity and authenticity, he taps art historical tradition and intellectual history in sly, provocative works that examine class, race, gender and colonialism. Published to accompany an exhibition organized by the Barnes Foundation, Yinka Shonibare MBE: Magic Ladders presents major works by the artist, including his latest commission. Dr. Albert C. Barnes, the pharmaceutical entrepreneur who assembled one of the world's greatest collections of post-Impressionist and early modern art, as well as one of the most historically imporantant holdings of African art in the United States shared Shonibare's interest in education and social mobility, although their views diverge in important ways. This book is both a catalogue of the exhibition and a reader on Barnes's educational outlook and collecting interests."