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Historic Grounds and Le Fenil Gallery

03. El Anatsui

"Cire perdue", "Ugwu" and "XiXe"

published at 21/01/2019
Awarded the 2015 Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and the 2017 Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo, El Anatsui is known for his wooden sculptures and complex assemblages of recycled materials. In the late 1970s, he gave precedence to using glass shards and pieces of broken ceramic. Two decades later, he shaped his first pieces of “fabric” from “poor materials”.
El Anatsui is inspired by the human traditions of recycling and finding new uses for old used objects, and he has skillfully turned this into the mainspring of the creative process. His works reflect upon global trade and the destruction and transformation of materials - symbols of the events faced by the African continent.
CIRE PERDUE, 2019
“Why boats, why barques? For me, the barque symbolises departure, it’s what serves to transport human beings, ideals and materials. It sacrifices itself, so to speak, in order to transport human beings and goods of all kinds. The work is called Cire perdue, like a lost work, a lost life. The boat sacrifices itself by carrying human beings and goods: it’s usually horizontal, but here it’s used vertically. These are dead boats, standing on their ends in order to be celebrated. A glorification of those who have sacrificed their lives, an elevation skywards in an extraordinary sculpture. The boat is sacrificed, just as the wax is lost when you pour the bronze. Energy is lost so as to enable something else to exist. It is the emergence of new things that is celebrated here. The boat has a bronze spinal column. The boats are being converted into bronze, with the basin at the top to enable distribution of the wax.” El Anatsui
UGWU, 2016
The great Ghanaian artist El Anatsui has designed an extraordinary hill made from logs, scrap materials and an array of printing plates in sparkling colours at the heart of the Historic Grounds.  
XiXe, 2015

The monumental mural installations and flooring sculptures created by El Anatsui, are composed of “scrap materials”: labels, aluminium bottle-tops, crushed, flattened-out tin cans and sheet metal offcuts. Works in bright, shimmering colours draw inspiration from Kente fabrics, the garments decorated with symbolic motifs worn by Ghanaian chiefs.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

EL ANATSUI
GHANA
 
 
El Anatsui was born in Anyako, Ghana, in 1944. He lives and works in Nsukka, Nigeria. Graduating from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana (1969), he rounded off his classical training with an apprenticeship in the ancient techniques of the Ashanti culture, embracing engravings, ceramics and pottery for example. In the 1970s, he joined the group of Nigerian artists the Nsukka School associated with the University of Nigeria where he taught from 1975 to 2011.
In 1990, he was one of five artists selected to represent Africa at the 44th Venice Biennale.
In 2013, he won the prestigious Charles Wollaston Award for his piece TSIATSIA - searching for connection. This gigantic shimmering wall work, woven together from scrap materials, covered the whole façade of Burlington House during the 2013 summer exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in London (Royal Academy’s 245th Summer Exhibition).
In 2014, El Anatsui was elected as an Honorary Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
In 2015 he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for Lifetime Achievement.
In 2017, the artist was awarded the highly prestigious Praemium Imperiale in the sculpture category.

EL ANATSUI

AWARDS

2017
Praemium Imperiale
 
2015
Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, Italy
 
2013 
Charles Wollaston Award, 245th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom
 
1999
Publics' Prize, 7th Triennale der Kleinplastik, Stuttgart, Germany
 
1998
Bronze Prize, 9th Osaka Triennale Sculpture, Japan
 
1995
Kansai Telecasting Corporation Prize, Osaka Triennale Sculpture, Japan
 
1990
Honourable Mention, 44th Venice Biennale, Italy

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

African Studies Gallery, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio, USA
Asele Institute, Nimo, Nigeria
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, USA
Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Clarks International Art Collection, Somerset, United Kingdom
de Young Museum, San Francisco, USA
Denver Art Museum, Colorado, USA
Diamond Bank of Nigeria, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
Eden Project, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
French Cultural Centre, Lagos, Nigeria
Ghanaian Embassy, Copenhagen, Denmark
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE
Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, USA
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, USA
International Peoples’ College, Helsingør, Denmark
Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
Jordan National Gallery of Arts, Amman, Jordan
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA
Missoni, Milano, Italy
Musée Ariana, Geneva, Switzerland
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany
Museum of Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, USA
Osaka Foundation of Culture, Osaka, Japan
Royal Ontario Museum, Canada
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, USA
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, USA
Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
The British Museum, London, United Kingdom
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC, USA
The Hammermill Collection, Hellebaek, Helsingør, Denmark
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
The National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Lagos, Nigeria
The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, USA
The Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
The Newark Museum, USA
The World Bank Art Collection, Washington DC, USA
UNAIDS, Geneva, Switzerland
Complete biography

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