El Anatsui in Munich

El Anatsui in Munich

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  _{Photographer: Maximilian Geuter}

  Facade of Haus der Kunst

  Host to the exhibition, Munich's Haus der Kunst is a leading museum of contemporary art. While it doesn't have a permanent collection, the institution organizes major exhibitions of contemporary art and hosts an important center for art historical research and education.

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  _{Photo: Maximilian Geuter}

  Ai Weiwei installation Bamboo and Porcelain, 2009

  ^{In collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron.}
  
  The Haus der Kunst has been an active center for modern and contemporary art since 1946. Long host to the avant-garde, it has brought major works to Germany including Picasso's Guernica in 1955.

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  Photographer: Maximilian Geuter

  Portrait of El Anatsui

  ^{Haus der Kunst, 2019.}
  
  El Anatsui was born in Anyako, Ghana in 1944. Since then, he has become one of Africa's most influential and revered living artists. He creates work in a variety of mediums, including wood sculpture, wall reliefs, ceramic sculptures, drawings, prints and books, and is most well-known for his elaborate tapestry-like sculptures employing found materials.

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  © El Anatsui. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

  Stressed World, 2011

  ^{Aluminum and copper wire, 174 x 234 in.}
  
  Stressed World displays some of the characteristic and innovative techniques used by El Anatsui. The large sculpture is constructed out of hundreds of found bottle caps, and aluminum and copper tabs, held together with metal wire. The result is a cloth-like, malleable construction that belies its core materiality.

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  © El Anatsui. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

  Gbeze, 1979

  ^{Ceramic, manganese.}
  
  Gbeze is an example of El Anatsui's earlier works, which have until recently been lesser known. The exhibition Triumphant Scale focuses on these works, drawing attention to the unusual combination of mediums: ceramic and manganese.

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  Earth-Moon Connexions, 1993

  ^{Wood, tempera, 35.4 x 33.2 x 1.2 in. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC.}
  
  Earth-Moon Connexions demonstrates the range of El Anatsui's artistic practice and his employment of diverse mediums throughout his career. For this work, created in tempera on wood panel, El Anatsui evokes a patterning predictive of the type found in his metal sculptures such as Stressed World, produced eighteen years later.

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