El Anatsui

El Anatsui (; born 4 February 1944) is a Ghanaian sculptor active for much of his career in Nigeria. He has drawn particular international attention for his "bottle-top installations". These installations consist of thousands of aluminum pieces sourced from alcohol recycling stations and sewn together with copper wire, which are then transformed into metallic cloth-like wall sculptures. Such materials, while seemingly stiff and sturdy, are actually free and flexible, which often helps with manipulation when installing his sculptures.

Anatsui was included in the 2023 Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. In the article, artist and art historian Okeke-Agulu writes, "The breathtaking combination of experimental rigor and inspired vision turns such unassuming materials as printer's plates or liquor-bottle caps into the magnificent constructions and compositions displayed around the world." His lettering attempts drew the attention of his school's headmaster, who encouraged his effort by providing him with more chalk. Because of his age at the time (just after kindergarten), he regarded the letters more as images than as letters--the forms interested him.

Anatsui received his B.A in 1968 from the College of Art and Built Environment (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. He received his postgraduate diploma in Art Education the following year, in 1969, from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), also in Kumasi.

Some of his early artistic influences include Oku Ampofo, Vincent Akwete Kofi, and Kofi Antubam, all of whom began to reject foreign influences in their practices in favor of indigenous art forms. After graduating in 1969, Anatsui assumed a teaching position at Winneba Specialist Training College (now University of Education), a role that had previously been filled by Kofi. He became a senior lecturer for the Fine and Applied Arts department in 1982, and later became head of that department and full professor of sculpture in 1996, a role he occupied until 2011.

Artwork Anatsui notes that, through school and in university, "everything we were doing was western," especially within the fine arts department of his university; he felt that there was something missing in his education for its lack of focus on his own culture. In order to rectify this, he started visiting the National Cultural Centre of Ghana, also in Kumasi, to engage with the musicians, graphic artists, textile artists, printers, and creative artists of all types. It was there that he encountered Adinkra, a system of signs and symbols, which was his first introduction to abstract art and opened up a new world of artistic possibilities for him. the Clark Art Institute (2011); the Rice University Art Gallery, Houston (2010); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2008–09); the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (2008); the Fowler Museum at UCLA (2007); the Venice Biennale (1990 and 2007); the Hayward Gallery (2005); the Liverpool Biennial (2002); and the Kunstmuseum Bern (2020). In 1995, Anatsui held his first solo exhibition outside of Africa in London. He expressed a variety of themes and demonstrated how African art can be shown in a multitude of ways that are not seen as "typical" African. His work utilized conceptual modes used by European and American artists but hardly in African countries. Also in 2005, his exhibition at New York's Skoto Gallery, Danudo, was the first display of his metal sheets in an American city.

A career-spanning survey of his work, organized by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, entitled Triumphant Scale drew record-breaking crowds when it opened in March 2019, at Munich's Haus der Kunst. From there, the show travelled to the Arab Museum of Modern Art, in Doha, and later to the Kunstmuseum Bern in 2020.

Other activities Anatsui was selected to be a member of the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA) world council in 1992 for his work in education. In 2017, Anatsui was awarded the Praemium Imperiale, the first Ghanaian to win this international art prize.

Other awards include:

1990 – Public Prize, 7th Annual Triennale der Kleinplastik 2017 – Honorary doctorate, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology 2023 – Time 100 2024 – Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, Bard College