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Old Used Torn Towel

Old Used Torn Towel

El Anatsui

El Anatsui burned, incised, carved, and painted native African hardwoods to create surface patterns reminiscent of kente cloth of his native Ghana. He intentionally leaves the arrangement of the 14 panels up to the owner as a reference to colonialism, when Africa was arbitrarily divided and reassembled according to European interests.
Artist
El Anatsui
(Ghanaian, active in Nigeria, b. 1944)
Title
Old Used Torn Towel
Date
ca. 2003
Medium
African hardwoods and pigment
Dimensions
24 x 54 x 1 in. Overall
Credit
J. David and Laura Seefried Horsfall Endowment Fund purchase
Accession No.
2005.58a-n
Classification
Sculpture
Geography
Ghana

Related

2005, sold by Contemporary African Art Gallery (New York, New York) to the Chazen Museum of Art

  • Chazen Museum of Art. "Bulletin 2003-2007." Madison: Chazen Museum of Art, 2010. p. 37, no. 2
  • Sytsma, Janine. "The Sculpture of El Anatsui: Rupture and Renewal at the Chazen Museum of Art." Bulletin 2003-2007. Chazen Museum of Art (2010): 36-41. pp. 36-41, no. 2
  • Rarey, Matthew Francis and Henry John Drewal. "Never at Rest: African Art at the University of Wisconsin." African Arts, vol 53, no. 4 (2020): 68-85. fig. 13

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