Portrait of El Anatsui. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Chika Ezema.
Portrait of El Anatsui. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Chika Ezema.
Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
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19
August
2024
|
09:56 AM
America/New_York

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Announces Major New Commission by El Anatsui

Opens October 11, 2024 
Williams Forum
  • Basin, 2012, El Anatsui, Found aluminum and copper wire, 134 x 160 inches, © El Anatsui. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
  • Stressed World, 2011, El Anatsui, Found aluminum and copper wire, 14 1/2 X 19 1/2 feet (overall dimensions), © El Anatsui. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
  • Stressed World (detail), 2011, El Anatsui, Found aluminum and copper wire, 14 1/2 X 19 1/2 feet (overall dimensions), © El Anatsui. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
  • Stressed World (detail), 2011, El Anatsui, Found aluminum and copper wire, 14 1/2 X 19 1/2 feet (overall dimensions), © El Anatsui. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
  • After Rain, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024, Logoligi Logarithm (detail), 2019, El Anatsui, 66-part maze of free-hanging curtains made of aluminum and copper wire, Approx. 2100 x 500 x 1000 cm, Courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation. Photo: Marco Cappelletti
    Important: By downloading this image, you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of an exhibition at the PMA. The Museum grants permission to use images only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those images--the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. In addition, the images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
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August 19, 2024 – The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is thrilled to announce a major new commission by the celebrated artist El Anatsui (b. 1944, Ghana). The work will be unveiled in the museum’s Williams Forum on October 11, 2024, where it will remain on display for two years.

Widely recognized as one of the most significant artistic innovators of our time, Anatsui has gained recognition through his development of new artistic forms and experiments with materials sourced from his surrounding environment. The artist began collecting discarded aluminum in the late 1990s—primarily caps from Nigerian liquor bottles—to create large-scale, net-like assemblages that possess a monumental sculptural quality. In Anatsui’s studio, thousands of bottle caps are laboriously flattened, punctured, and pieced together using copper wire to form cascading metal mosaics or “fabrics” that demonstrate a fascinating and fluid interplay of color and composition.

Anatsui’s site-specific work for the PMA, made in close collaboration with the museum, will focus on the metal security seals left around bottle necks after the cap has been removed. In a striking reconstruction of the body, Anatsui has created approximately 200 human silhouettes that will float at the center of the museum’s Williams Forum and, from certain vantage points, will appear to come together in a globe-like shape. Monumental in size, the work will span the ceiling of the Forum and hang from a structure measuring over 27 by 40 feet. Exploring the tension between the individual and the global, and between singular and collective experience, visitors will be invited to approach the work from different angles and heights, allowing them to have varied, individualized experiences of the work. While some might feel that the installation invites a shared sense of belonging, others might find themselves on the outside looking in.

Anatsui’s use of the bottle seal—which he turns into loops of thin metal strips connected with small copper rings—also marks a novel and important development in the formal qualities of his works. Whereas his best-known sculptures have been constructed from densely connected flattened caps in vivid colors and patterns, the thinner bottle seals used in his new work will produce open surfaces and delicate textures that breathe fresh life into the cutout forms. “The intricate interplay between opacity and transparency generates an ambiguous optical illusion,” the artist said. “Navigating this multi-layered work demands the use of all senses—sight, sound, and touch—thus challenging us to move beyond conventional frameworks.”

He added, “What some might consider mundane, defunct, or even ugly can be transformed through reconfiguration, reimagination, and re-embrace.” While the bottle caps and seals participate in cyclical commercial systems of production, consumption, and disposal, they will be given new purpose at the PMA, calling attention to the ethics of global trade and the detrimental impact of accumulated waste on the natural world.

“I have long admired El Anatsui as an artist,” said Sasha Suda, the George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “The opportunity to collaborate with him for this site-specific installation is a dream come true. I’m excited that our Philadelphia community, as well as our visitors across the U.S. and the world, will now get to experience El’s work. This is truly an honor for the PMA.”

Anatsui’s commission will be on view for two years, marking the first phase of a two-part collaboration with the PMA. In 2026, the final months of his installation will coincide with an exhibition of Anatsui’s prints and paper works in the Daniel W. Dietrich II Galleries, Guest Curator Chika Okeke-Agulu, the Robert Schirmer Professor of Art & Archaeology and African American Studies, Princeton University, and for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Heather Hughes, the Kathy and Ted Fernberger Associate Curator of Prints. These projects will build on Anatsui’s ties to Philadelphia institutions, especially the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, with which he has collaborated since 2017. With the artist’s support, in 2023, Brandywine inaugurated the El Anatsui Fellowship, which brings artists from African countries to the city for monthlong residencies.

Support
This exhibition was made possible through the generous support of the Daniel W. Dietrich II Fund for Excellence in Contemporary Art and Katie and Tony Schaeffer.       

All exhibitions at the PMA are underwritten by the Annual Exhibition Fund. Annual support is provided by Andrea Baldeck, M.D.; Julia and David Fleischner; Robert Hayes; Mark W. Strong and Dana Strong; and Amy A. Fox and Daniel H. Wheeler.

Curators
Erica F. Battle, John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Curator of Contemporary Art
Heather Hughes, Kathy and Ted Fernberger Associate Curator of Prints
Luiza Repsold França, Daniel W. Dietrich II Fellow in Modern and Contemporary Art

Advisor: Chika Okeke-Agulu, Robert Schirmer Professor of Art and Archaeology and African American Studies Role African and African Diaspora Art, Princeton University

About El Anatsui 
El Anatsui (b. 1944, Ghana) is an internationally acclaimed artist who transforms simple materials into complex assemblages that create distinctive visual impact. Anatsui uses resources typically discarded such as liquor bottle caps and cassava graters to create sculptures that defy categorization. Anatsui’s use of these materials reflects his interest in reuse, transformation, and an intrinsic desire to connect to his continent while transcending the limitations of place. 

In 2015, Anatsui was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale. Anatsui’s solo exhibition Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, was organized by the Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio (2012) and traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2013); then to the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, Florida (2014); and concluded at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California (2015). In 2019, El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, a major career survey curated by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, opened at Haus der Kunst in Munich and travelled to Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Kunstmuseum Bern and Guggenheim Bilbao in 2020. Anatsui currently lives and works between Ghana and Nigeria.

About the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a national and international destination for art, but first we are Philadelphia’s art museum, for all the city’s many diverse communities. Through our collections, exhibitions, events, educational activities, celebrations, and more, the PMA is a storyteller, and we welcome everyone to be part of the story—our doors are wide open. To learn more, visit www.philamuseum.org.

Social Media
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Media Contact
Maggie Fairs
VP, Communications
Philadelphia Museum of Art
E: maggie.fairs@philamuseum.org
M: 267-768-1163