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El Anatsui
Artist

El Anatsui

Famoose for

Transforming discarded bottle tops into monumental flexible sculptures.

Bottle-top installations · Flexible compositions

Born
1944
Birthplace
Anyako, Ghana

More people

Leonardo da VinciPainting the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.Frida KahloPainting self-portraits about identity, pain and Mexican life.Vincent van GoghPainting The Starry Night and Sunflowers.

El Anatsui

El Anatsui is a Ghanaian sculptor who developed much of his career in Nigeria. His large metal works can hang like cloth despite being assembled from discarded materials.

Early life

Anyako

Raised by an uncle after his mother died.

Kumasi

Studied art and art education at KNUST.

Career

  1. 1969

    Teaching

    Began at Winneba Specialist Training College.

  2. 1975

    Nsukka

    Joined the University of Nigeria.

  3. 1996

    Professor

    Became a professor of sculpture and department head.

Selected work

Bottle-top installations

Joins aluminium pieces with copper wire.

Flexible compositions

Allows works to change shape with their installation.

Beyond work

Education

Combined an international artistic practice with decades of university teaching.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical data and references ↗Artist’s curriculum vitae ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: Universes in Universe. Copyrighted image; source credit retained · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.