El Anatsui

Lanogo

Found at Christies, New York
21st Century Evening Sale, Lot 35 A
9. Nov - 9. Nov 2021
Estimate: 1.200.000 - 1.800.000 USD
Price realised: 1.470.000 USD
EL ANATSUI (B. 1944)
Lanogo
Unyielding, and yet mailable; metallic and yet organic, El Anatsui’s Lanogo is one of the artist’s iconic sculptures which opens up the traditional concept of the object to an entirely new level of physical interpretation. El Anatsui has described his objects as ‘gawu,’ which in his native Ghanian Ewe language translates into English as a ‘metal cloak,’ and standing before this monumental shimmering tapestry of color and form, one is certainly embraced by its form, and becoming enveloped in the aesthetic and conceptual complexity of this striking work.
“Initially these were purely sculpture, but as time went on I saw that there was a need for me to consider so many other elements, like the colors that show the brands of drinks.... I work more like a sculpture and a painter put together, because the concerns of the sculptor and painter are what I am grappling with as well.” El Anatsui
What from a distance appears to be a shimmering mirage, upon close examination reveals itself to be an intricate arrange of bottle caps and their neck fastenings. Flattened and then arranged together into evocative fields of color, these are then tied together by Anatsui’s studio assistants into a vast expanse of metal cloth which dazzles as it hangs on the wall. The discarded bottle caps that Anatsui uses are central not only to the aesthetic appearance of the work, but also to its powerful conceptual narrative too. “I researched the history of how these beverages came to Africa,” he explained, “and found that they were brought by European traders, who exchanged them for various goo
Of his process Anatsui explains, “I get these things [bottle caps] and I intervene by cutting them and opening them up and bolting them together in order to create very huge sheets that are so big that they give you the freedom to play around with them. Initially these were purely sculpture, but as time went on I saw that there was a need for me to consider so many other elements, like the colors that show the brands of drinks - like the reds,
El Anatsui belongs to a generation of African artists who came of age in the 1960s, a time of fundamental ideological realignments that were often prompted by political independence from their European colonial powers. For Anatsui, this resulted in critical reappraisal of everything he had been taught in the Western-inspired curriculum he followed in art school, and its insistence on learning the virtues of figure modeling, anatomy classes, Graec
Now a major figure in the world of Contemporary art, El Anatsui was living and teaching in Nsukka, Nigeria when in 1995 he had his first solo show in London. Since then, his work has been shown extensively worldwide and collected by major public institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the British Museum in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Pari

Auction result well in line with expectations

In November 2021 Christies in New York held the auction 21st Century Evening Sale, which included the work Lanogo by El Anatsui. The price achieved of USD 1,470,000.00 (€ 1,302,383.27) was within expectations - the estimate range had previously been set by the auction house as USD 1,200,000.00 – 1,800,000.00. Other works by El Anatsui have already achieved higher auction prices, for example, in May this year the work Prophet was auctioned for USD 2,228,000.00 (€ 2,091,233.34).

Auktionsergebnis im Rahmen der Erwartungen

Im November 2021 führte Christies in New York die Auktion 21st Century Evening Sale durch, in der auch die Arbeit Lanogo von El Anatsui zur Versteigerung kam. Der dabei erzielte Preis von USD 1.470.000,00 (€ 1.302.383,27) lag im Rahmen der Erwartungen – die Schätzpreisspanne war von dem Auktionshaus zuvor mit USD 1.200.000,00 – 1.800.000,00 angegeben worden. Andere Arbeiten von El Anatsui konnten bereits höhere Auktionspreise erzielen, so wurde im Mai diesen Jahres die Arbeit Prophet für USD 2.228.000,00 (€ 2.091.233,34) versteigert.

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