El Anatsui: Art and Life

This expanded and revised edition celebrates the work of Ghanaian artist El Anatsui by exploring the artist’s life and the trajectory of his remarkable career. An African artist who has garnered worldwide recognition while based permanently in Nigeria and whose work is in the permanent collections of many of the world’s great museums, El Anatsui is best known for sumptuous tapestries made from used bottle tops. Art historian Susan Mullin Vogel, who has known the artist for decades, provides a penetrating study of his work, blending scholarly discussion with her personal observations of his studio practice over more than a decade. Accompanied by 180 images, this book traces El Anatsui’s life-long exploration of media that led to his creation of the bottle-top art form that has captured the global art world. It explores his busy studio, his University of Nigeria intellectual community, and his two decades of making eloquent and moving art. Vogel traces the intertwined threads of Anatsui’s ideas, life, and art, from his youthful searching and desire to express Africa’s history, to his creation of immense and ethereal artworks. This expanded edition reveals his profound and delicately beautiful recent work. AUTHOR: An African artist who has garnered worldwide recognition while based permanently in Nigeria, El Anatsui is best known for shimmering tapestries made from liquor bottle tops, which are part of the permanent collections of many of the world’s great museums. Author Susan M. Vogel, who worked closely with Anatsui while directing a documentary film about the artist, offers a uniquely personal perspective on Anatsui and provides the first penetrating study of his artworks.
180 colour illustrations