El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa

On view: March 30–June 26

Gerald and Marjorie Schechter Bronfman Gallery

Harold and Estelle Newman Tanner Gallery

Camilla Chandler and Dorothy Buffum Chandler Gallery

Joanne Larson Jobson Gallery

Opening Celebration March 30 / 6:00–8:00 PM

Davis Museum lobby and galleries         

El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, the Ghanaian artist’s first career retrospective, makes its U.S. debut at the Davis. Widely lauded for magnificent large-scale wall hangings made from thousands of discarded liquor-bottle tops “sewn” together with copper wire, and for installation pieces similarly crafted from refuse, Anatsui draws on traditional idioms and contemporary art practices to create work that resonates materially and symbolically with the cultural and historical conditions of West Africa.

The exhibition, which features 54 works from the artist’s four-decade career, encompasses sculptures in wood, ceramic, and metal, as well as rarely seen paintings and drawings. A richly illustrated catalogue, with entries by Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller University professor of philosophy at Princeton University; Lisa Binder, assistant curator at the Museum for African Art, New York; Olu Oguibe, professor of art and art history at the University of Connecticut; Chika Okeke-Agulu, assistant professor of art and archaeology at Princeton University; and Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art, accompanies the exhibition and will be available at the Davis.

El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa is organized by the Museum for African Art, New York, and has been supported, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.   The presentation at the Davis is supported by the Wellesley College Friends of Art and the Kathryn Wasserman Davis’28 Fund for World Cultures and Leadership