El Anatsui, a Highly skilled sculpturist and professor born 1944 in Anyako, Ghana. Anatsui studied at the College of Art and University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Anatsui started teaching at the University of Nigeria in 1975. Anatsui has done many pieces of sculpture with wood and clay but his most recent installations have been giant cloth like designs made from metal scraps and discarded bottle caps. Although it is not his main focus El makes a strong stand for how anyone can recycle in many ways.
El Anatsui's sculptures have strong use of line and emphasis on different parts of his works but he makes them well balanced so that having emphasis on one area of his sculpture doesn't subtract from the rest. There is a strong sense of movement within his sculptures with all the colors that guide your eyes around his sculptures. Movement can be best seen in my opinion in his work Mammoth crowd series I which can be seen here.
http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/art/anatsui/mammoth_crowd_series.shtml
http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/art/anatsui/mammoth_crowd_series.shtml
Some of El's major concerns are the erosion of many indigenous African cultures that are majorly disintegrated by the western world. I find Anatsui's pieces of sculpture interesting and bold, hearing about a sculpture made out of bottle caps would probably just make most people think that the artist is second rate, but i find that any artist that can take something so simple and make it something so beautiful deserves true recognition and attention.
