I saw in again in the crafts exhibit rooms at MOMA last summer, and was thrilled to know that this artist, to whom it seemed few in Los Angeles attended to, was collected and exhibited here.
I was struck with the elegance of these shimmering creations, and one wishes for a dress, or to cloak an altar, the Virgin, or KwanYin in one such as these.
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| El Anatsui at LACMA, where I first encountered his work. These opulent draperies, fit for a cathedral, that are made of beer caps wired together. I have actual pain when I think how folks in outsider art and some Midwesterners I recall used to save beer and soda caps and make hokey thing-a-ma-bobs out of them. I never had time for this, and dismissed the use of them, despite how intrinsically attractive I actually found them. |
It's astonishing to me that both artists achieve similar effects, so far from time and place. Yet each has the relation of a exploitative colonial heritage to manifest, and so they do, each in his/her own way.
I love both these artists. The difference is that El Anatsui is male and hugely well known and wealthy, while Olga de Amaral, a woman is only now, at the age of 89 getting the recognition she deserves. It sucks to be female.
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