As i mentioned previously, three incredible early works by El Anatsui are currently on display at the Modernist Nigeria exhibition in @tate Modern.
They are titled, Solemn Crowd at Dawn (1989), Leopard’s Paw-prints and Other Stories (1991), and Connexions (1993) and , to me, they were fascinating to see in person because they seemed to capture a turning point in the artist’s exploration of material and meaning.
Each work, carved and painted in tropical hardwoods, has a very tactile rhythm. The marks and paint traces highlight the labour of transformation (i.e. the act of inscribing histories onto wood that stood in the land.)
I researched them and here is what i found out:
In Solemn Crowd at Dawn, the stillness of the carved surface suggests communal emergence and renewal, while Leopard’s Paw-prints and Other Stories expands in scale, its vast grid of assembled woods echoing storytelling traditions and ancestral marks.
By the time he created Connexions, Anatsui’s language of incision and layering had become more abstract , meditating on relationships, between individuals, histories, and continents.
Seeing them together, these wall hangings seem to hint at and anticipate the direction of his later monumental metallic tapestries, however, they also remain grounded in the craft, ecology, and spirituality of West African modernism.
They are a necessary reminder that the most honest narratives on modernity can be carved from the textures of local memory.
The exhibition as a whole is incredible but these pieces were just wonderful.
To say I am a fan is an understatement... I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have mentioned his work to the students @ma_interior_design_kingston every year 🤣
They are titled, Solemn Crowd at Dawn (1989), Leopard’s Paw-prints and Other Stories (1991), and Connexions (1993) and , to me, they were fascinating to see in person because they seemed to capture a turning point in the artist’s exploration of material and meaning.
Each work, carved and painted in tropical hardwoods, has a very tactile rhythm. The marks and paint traces highlight the labour of transformation (i.e. the act of inscribing histories onto wood that stood in the land.)
I researched them and here is what i found out:
In Solemn Crowd at Dawn, the stillness of the carved surface suggests communal emergence and renewal, while Leopard’s Paw-prints and Other Stories expands in scale, its vast grid of assembled woods echoing storytelling traditions and ancestral marks.
By the time he created Connexions, Anatsui’s language of incision and layering had become more abstract , meditating on relationships, between individuals, histories, and continents.
Seeing them together, these wall hangings seem to hint at and anticipate the direction of his later monumental metallic tapestries, however, they also remain grounded in the craft, ecology, and spirituality of West African modernism.
They are a necessary reminder that the most honest narratives on modernity can be carved from the textures of local memory.
The exhibition as a whole is incredible but these pieces were just wonderful.
To say I am a fan is an understatement... I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have mentioned his work to the students @ma_interior_design_kingston every year 🤣
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