El Anatsui

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Man's Cloth (1998–2001) by El Anatsui, exhibited in the British Museum

El Anatsui (* 1944 in Anyako ) is a Ghanaian sculptor .

life and work

Anatsui was born in Anyako in the Volta Region and studied at the College of Art at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi , Central Ghana. He began teaching in 1975 at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka , where he joined the Nsukka artist group.

Anatsui's preferred materials are wood and clay, which he uses to create objects based on traditional Ghanaian myths and other themes. He worked wood with a chainsaw and blackened it with an acetylene burner . More recently he has turned to installation art . Some of his works are reminiscent of Kente scarves. In addition to Ghanaian motifs, Anatsui also uses Uli and Nsibidi designs.

El Anatsui's works are exhibited all over the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York (2008-09); National Museum of African Art , Washington, DC 2001 and 2008; Biennale di Venezia 1990 and 2007; Hayward Gallery London (2005); Liverpool Biennale (2002); Center de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (2001); and the 8th Osaka Triennial (1995). The retrospective When I Last Wrote to You About Africa opened at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto , Canada in October 2010 and toured North America over the next three years. In 2019, the retrospective Triumphant Scale, curated by Okwui Enwezor in collaboration with Chike Okeke-Agulu , opened in the Haus der Kunst in Munich, with further stops at Mathaf in Doha, the Kunstmuseum Bern and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Prizes and awards

literature

  • Susan Mullin Vogel: El Anatsui. Art and life. Prestel, Munich / London / New York, NY 2012, ISBN 978-3-7913-4650-2 .

Web links

Commons : El Anatsui  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b 'Artist biography at the National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC'. Retrieved January 24, 2010
  2. ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (2008) 'Rich Legacy of African Textiles on View in Metropolitan Museum Exhibition' . Retrieved July 11, 2013.
  3. 'El Anatsui at NMAA' . (January 17, 2008). Artnet . Retrieved January 29, 2010
  4. 'Out of West Africa: A conversation with El Anatsui' , Sculpture magazine , July / August 2006. Retrieved March 2, 2011
  5. Storr, Robert. (2007). 'El Anatsui' (PDF; 876 kB), in Think with the senses: Feel with the mind , Venice Biennale catalog. Retrieved January 29, 2010
  6. ^ Website of the Hayward Gallery, London 'AFRICA REMIX: Contemporary Art of a Continent' accessed on January 29, 2010
  7. 'Review: Africas: The artist and the city , The Center de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (2001) , Sculpture magazine , May 2002. Retrieved January 29, 2010
  8. Adams, James. 'El Anatsui's shimmering echoes of a painful past'  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in the Globe and Mail . Retrieved October 1, 2010@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.artdesigncafe.com  
  9. El Anatsui. Triumphant Scale. In: Kunstmuseum Bern. Retrieved June 20, 2020 .
  10. Honorary Members: El Anatsui. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 4, 2019 .