Ghanaian born El Anatsui is today recognized as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation. His work has been displayed in major shows and collected by important institutions across the world. The Museum for African Art is honored to present the first retrospective exhibition of his work, including not only major pieces from the metal cloth series, but also important sculptures in wood, ceramic, and mixed media.

El Anatsui has gained widespread internationally acclaim in recent years for his dazzling metallic tapestries made from liquor bottle tops. In this work, as in the wood, ceramic, and metal sculptures the artist has made over the past thirty years, El Anatsui has pieced together monumental visual statements that refer to global, local, and personal histories. In El Anatsui’s sculpture materials that were once simple and overlooked are transformed into artworks that evoke collective memories of Africa’s past and present. 

El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa is the first opportunity for audiences to see how the artist’s ideas have developed over three decades. The retrospective will cover El Anatsui’s career, ranging from his early work in Ghana making use of traditional symbols, to the driftwood pieces he created when in Denmark, to his sculpted chainsaw carvings. While many of El Anatsui’s works make use of found objects including bottle caps, milk tins, cassava graters, the artist states that his sculptures are not about recycling or salvaging, but rather about seeking meaning in the ways materials can be transformed to make statements about history, culture, and individual and collective memory. 

A new film on El Anatsui directed by art historian and filmmaker Susan Vogel, with compelling footage of him at work in his studio in Nigeria, where he has taught art for three decades, as well as in Venice, Italy where he installed work at the 2007 Biennale, complements this stunning exhibition. A beautifully illustrated catalogue will include new essays written by the foremost scholars of contemporary art, and a long interview in which the artist provides new insight into his life and work.  This major retrospective will be an inaugural exhibition in the Museum for African Art’s new building in Manhattan, scheduled to open in late2009. It will then begin a tour to four venues starting in mid 2010. 

Education
El Anatsui earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Sculpture and a Postgraduate Diploma in Art Education from the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.  The artist is Professor of Sculpture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he has lectured since 1975. 

Recent Exhibition Highlights
Most recently, Anatsui exhibited in both the Arnesale and Palazzo Fortuny at the 2007 Venice Biennale.  He was included in the blockbuster Africa Remix exhibition which opened in 2005 in Düsseldorf and has continued to tour London, Paris, Tokyo and Johannesburg. Gawu, a solo exhibition of his recent work has been on tour throughout Europe, America and Asia. 

Major Collections
El Anatsui’s work is collected by major institutions throughout the world including, but not limited to: The British Museum, London; The Pompidou Center, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. 

All pieces are shown here as examples of the artist's work and will not necessarily be included in the exhibition.

El Anatsui: "When I Last Wrote to You About Africa" is available for travel.  For more information please e-mail travellingexhibitions@africanart.org