March 25 – May 2, 2009
Co-presented by BRIC Arts|Media|Bklyn and the Museum for African Art
El Anatsui: Process and Project presents thirty years of never-before-seen drawings and sketches by the internationally acclaimed sculptor El Anatsui. Featuring Anatsui’s sketches for major sculptures as well as archival photographs of the artist at work in his studio in Nigeria, the exhibition offers a rare look at the working methods of this premier artist. Like the pages of a family album, the exhibition unfolds in suites of preparatory sketches and images of finished pieces, showing Anatsui’s thought processes on his early work in ceramic and wood. At the center of the exhibition is the monumental installation Peak Project, composed of numerous freestanding “peaks” made from thousands of glittering tin-can lids.
Following sketches, exhibition literature, and photographs from the late 1960s, to the landmark 1979 exhibition Broken Pots, held at the British Council in Enugu, Nigeria, to the 1990 Venice Biennale, viewers trace sculptures from inception to completion. The exhibition also displays Anatsui’s sketchbooks, many of which show early designs that presage his famous liquor-bottle top “cloth” sculptures and large scale in situ installations.
El Anatsui: Process and Project opens in advance of El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa, a major retrospective of the artist’s career, organized by the Museum for African Art, and an inaugural exhibition at the Museum’s new building on Museum Mile in Manhattan, set to open in 2010. El Anatsui: Process and Project is organized by the Museum for African Art, New York. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Curator Talk - El Anatsui: Process and Project
April 15, 2009 at 7pm
Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street
In conjunction with the exhibition El Anatsui: Process and Project, join exhibition curator Lisa Binder for a public lecture and discussion about the artist and the upcoming major retrospective at the Museum for African Art. Process and Project presents thirty years of never-before-seen drawings and sketches by the internationally acclaimed sculptor El Anatsui. This public program is co-sponsored by the Brooklyn Historical Society.