African Artist El Anatsui

Metallic Cloth of Many Colors

By: Charles Giuliano - Apr 04, 2016

African Artist El Anatsui

Like Joseph's
Coat of many colors
So too with
Biblical
El Anatsui
Works to be worshiped
Votive offerings
Evoking spirits
Metallic tapestries
Bits of detritus
Flattened into tesserae
Like mosaics
Recycled from
Bottles and cans
Fashioned with copper wire
Intensive labor
Studio of assistants
Taking shapes
Flowing over walls
Defining panoramas
Shimmering colors
Determined by curators
Global galleries
Museums of the world
Born in Ghana 1944
Lives in Nigeria
Late bloomer
To fame and fortune
Gallerist Jack Shainman
Grew up in Williamstown
Brought him to the Clark
Where we interacted
Speaking the
Universal language
Of art with
An African master