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. Accompanied by nearly 150 images, this book traces his lifelong exploration of media leading up to the bottle top art form that has captured the interest of the global art world. The book explores the artist’s themes of loss, chaos, and decay, his Nigerian University intellectual community, and his creative studio practice. Vogel traces the intertwined threads of Anatsui’s ideas, life, and art, from his youthful searching and desire to express Africa’s history to today’s work that can be immense and ethereal.

El Anatsui: Art and Life

Vogel, Susan M.

Reference

Prestel USA

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. El Anatsui: Art and Life by Susan Mullin Vogel is the essential resource on the Ghanaian artist known worldwide for spectacular tapestries of reclaimed bottle tops. This revised and expanded book follows Anatsui on his remarkable journey from an obscure university town in Africa to the summit of the global art world. Vogel, whose exhibitions and books have influenced African art history, analyzes Anatsui's unique art form, often quoting the artist's interviews with her. She describes his engagement with African traditions, his early work in clay and wood, a triumphant decade exhibiting radiant metal cloths, then a profound development in the second decade, presented here for the first time. The book takes us inside his busy studio, revealing the gritty reality and the subtle genius of his bottle-top hangings, exhibited in museums and biennials across the world.

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Prestel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Vogel, Susan M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Vogel, Susan M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Vogel, Susan M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

El Anatsui: Art and Life

El Anatsui: Art and Life