El Anatsui: Art and Life

An African artist who has garnered worldwide recognition while based permanently in Nigeria and whose work is in the permanent collections of many of the world's great museums, El Anatsui is best known for sumptuous tapestries made from used bottle tops. Art historian Susan Mullin Vogel, who has known the artist for many years, provides a penetrating study of his work, blending scholarly analysis with her close personal observations of his studio practice. Accompanied by 180 images, this book traces El Anatsui's life-long exploration of media that led to his creation of the bottle-top art form that has captured the global art world. It explores his busy studio, his University of Nigeria intellectual community, and his two decades of making eloquent and moving art. Vogel traces the intertwined threads of Anatsui's ideas, life, and art, from his youthful searching and desire to express Africa's history, to his creation of immense and ethereal artworks. This expanded edition reveals his profound and delicately beautiful recent work.