El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa, a career retrospective of the internationally renowned artist El Anatsui, begins a North American tour at the  Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, October 2, 2010 – January 2, 2011; the Museum for African Art, New York, in winter 2011; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, March 8 – June 17, 2012; and the Denver Art Museum, September 2 – December 1, 2012. Ghanaian-born El Anatsui, best known for monumental wall sculptures made from discarded bottle tops, is recognized as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation. The exhibition spans four decades of Anatsui’s work including wood and ceramics, as well as drawings, paintings, and metal sculptures.

In Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art the humble but beautifully crafted coiled basket, made in Africa and in the southern United States, becomes a prism through which audiences learn about the artistry characteristic of Africans in America from the 17th century to the present.

On view at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center from February 5, 2009 and continuing through April 20, 2009.  Grass Roots will open in New York in 2010 as one of the inaugural exhibitions at the Museum for African Art's new building in Harlem. Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art is available for travel.

Image: Egg basket, Elizabeth Mazyck, Courtesy of the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, 26/1065