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El Anatsui

Sculptors

El Anatsui is a Ghanaian sculptor, based for most of his career in Nigeria, known internationally for large-scale hanging wall sculptures assembled from thousands of flattened bottle caps and other discarded metal fragments, bound together with copper wire into shimmering, textile-like surfaces. Works such as Earth's Skin and Dusasa evoke the flowing drape of African kente cloth while also carrying commentary on consumption, waste, and the history of trade between Africa and the wider world, since many of the caps originate from imported liquor bottles. Anatsui's transformation of discarded industrial material into monumental, malleable sculptural forms, which can be reconfigured differently at each installation, has made him one of the most acclaimed contemporary African artists.

Facts
Birth Year
1944 1
Nationality
Ghanaian 1
Birth Date
1944-02-04 1
Training
Postgraduate diploma in Art Education, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, 1969 1
Classification
Gender
Male 1
Connections

Works Created

In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: El Anatsui
  • Lead, first sentence (birth year)
    born 4 February 1944
  • Lead, first sentence (birth date)
    born 4 February 1944
  • Lead, first sentence (nationality)
    is a Ghanaian
  • Early life and education, diploma sentence
    Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
  • Gender reference
    El Anatsui is a Ghanaian sculptor, based for most of his career in Nigeria, known internationally for large-scale hanging wall sculptures assembled from thousands of flattened bottle caps and other discarded metal fragments, bound together with copper wire into shimmering, textile-like surfaces.
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