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| El Anatsui |
The Japan
Art Association has announced the five recipients of the 2017 Praemium
Imperiale Awards and honoured El Anatsui with the Praemium
Imperiale Award for Sculpture.
Since 1989,
the Praemium Imperiale Awards have been given annually in the categories of
Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film to cover fields of
achievement not represented by the
Nobel Prizes. The Laureates are chosen
from lists submitted annually by six International Advisors to the Japan Art
Association.
The awards
will be presented by HIH Prince Hitachi, Honorary Patron of the Japan Art
Association and younger brother of the current Emperor of Japan, in a
ceremony in Tokyo this October. Each Laureate receives an honorarium of 15
million Yen (c. £100,000).
In addition
to the Praemium Imperiale Awards, there is also a companion Grant for Young
Artists.
October
Gallery, London, has worked with El Anatsui since 1993, during which time his
art has received worldwide recognition. His magnificent sculptures have been
collected by major international museums. Elisabeth Lalouschek, Artistic
Director of October Gallery comments, "I am
delighted that El Anatsui has been given this most significant award in
recognition of his extraordinary contribution to the world of contemporary
art."
El
Anatsui‘s complex works of art defy the traditional categories. He is well
known for malleable sculptures created from discarded metal elements, like
cassava graters or liquor bottle tops. His transformation of these found
materials into large-scale works enhances their significance and endows them
with a shimmering sense of opulence. El Anatsui has said, "The amazing thing
about working with these metallic “fabrics†is that the poverty of the
materials used in no way precludes the telling of rich and wonderful
stories."
Born in Ghana,
El Anatsui moved to Nigeria in 1975, where he is based today. His work has
been collected by major international museums, including the Metropolitan
Museum, the Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou and the Smithsonian Institution,
among many others. In 2015, he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime
Achievement at the Venice Biennale. Anatsui’s work was first displayed in
Japan in the exhibition An Inside Story: African Art of our Time, in 1995.
That same year he received the Kansai Telecasting Corporation Prize at the
Osaka Triennale. His work was the subject of a large-scale retrospective that
toured Japan, A Fateful Journey: Africa in the Works of El Anatsui, 2010-11.
A major work, Perspectives, was included in the exhibition The Contemporary
2: Who Interprets the World? at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art,
Kanazawa, Japan, in 2015. El Anatsui is the first Ghanaian recipient of the
Praemium Imperiale. Past Sculpture Laureates include: Arnaldo Pomodoro,
Anthony Caro, Christo
Source:http://africanartswithtaj.blogspot.com.ng/2017/09/el-anatsui-is-2017-praemium-imperiale.html
