News
New Acquisition by Acclaimed African Artist El Anatsui
February 2007
The newly purchased found-object sculpture Danu by renowned West African artist El Anatsui is now on view in Paige Court. The installation marks the first time that this important artist's work has been exhibited in Madison. El Anatsui (Ghanaian, b. 1944) has emerged in recent years as one of Africa's leading contemporary artists, and the Chazen joins major museums around the world that have welcomed Anatsui's art into their permanent collections, including: the British Museum, London; Pompidou Center, Paris; de Young Museum, San Francisco; and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.
Danu (2006), 7 ft. 4 in. x 11 ft. 6 in., is from the artist's acclaimed series of metal wall sculptures that hang and drape like fabric. Using aluminum liquor bottle caps and wrappers discarded by Nigerian distilleries, El Anatsui and his team of assistants flatten the colorful metal pieces and join them with copper wire into patterns inspired by traditional West African strip-woven textiles. Anatsui enjoys challenging viewers' perceptions of metal as rigid and explains that its fluidity and flexibility allow the work to be continually transformed. The artist is frequently referred to as an alchemist, transmuting metal refuse into golden fabric. Although his works may be appreciated for their sheer beauty, they also reflect Africa's colonial and postcolonial history. In the past Europeans traded both liquor and cloth for African slaves. Now, Africa is plied with alcohol and disposable consumer culture in the name of globalism. By transforming these destructive, discarded elements into works of art, Anatsui comments on the collective memories and counternarratives of this cultural exchange.
El Anatsui's sculpture Danu joined other works of art representing Africa and the African diaspora currently on view at the Chazen Museum of Art. In recognition of Black History Month, recently acquired prints by African American artists Dox Thrash, Betye Saar, and Allan Rohan Crite were displayed during February 2007 in the niche case between Brittingham Galleries III and IV. Nine fascinating African objects from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Democratic Republic of Congo are on view in the niche case between galleries VII and VIII for the entire spring semester. The objects, on loan from Ralph and Jo Wickstrom, include weapons such as an executioner's sword and a throwing knife, ceremonial masks and ritual objects, and artist's tools. Two objects are made by the Yoruba peoples; the Fungom, Mumuye, Pende, Senufo, Zulu, Nbaka, and Ngala cultures are also represented. These recent acquisitions and exhibitions reflect the museum's active program to expand its holdings in the area of African art; the Chazen plans to devote a permanent gallery to art of the African diaspora in its expanded exhibition facilities scheduled to open by early 2011.