ISBN
1-872843-14-X 1998
96pp
£14.95
Published by Saffron
Books in conjunction with the October Gallery.
Supported by an award from the Arts Council of England.
Highly regarded in Africa, where he is considered to be one of the leading sculptors of his generation, Ghanaian-born El Anatsui is now rapidly establishing a wide international reputation. Chosen to represent the African continent during the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990, he has participated in many important exhibitions abroad - in England, Germany, the United States, Japan and Brazil - and has been a leading contributor to a number of international workshops for artists.
While there have been numerous articles written that deal with his impressive body of work, this book represents the first attempt to draw together under a single cover the many aspects of this artist's singular career. The book gives both the general reader interested in the visual arts and the reader more particularly interested in contemporary African art, an overview of El Anatsui's career and an analysis of his work to date. The various texts are complemented by a series of beautiful colour and black & white reproductions.
Just as El Anatsui's work is concerned with the hidden histories of many different African cultures, so too this book is a composite tissue woven from different sources and written in different languages. The contributors are John Picton, Reader in African Art at SOAS, University of London; Gerard Houghton, writer and linguist at the October Gallery; Yukiya Kawaguchi, Curator at the Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo; Elisabeth Lalouschek, Artistic Director of the October Gallery; Simon Njami, Editor of Revue Noire, Paris, France and Elizabeth Péri-Willis, an expert on West African visual artistic practices.
The October Gallery represents El Anatsui world-wide. For more information about this artist, his career and work available: please contact the October Gallery.