Tate Modern and Hyundai Motor announce artist El Anatsui to create new commission

Tate Modern and Hyundai Motor have announced that El Anatsui will create the next annual Hyundai Commission.

One of the most distinctive artists working today, El Anatsui is best-known for his cascading metallic sculptures constructed of thousands of recycled bottle-tops articulated with copper wire.

Repurposing found materials into dazzling works of abstract art, Anatsui’s work explores themes that include the environment, consumption and trade.

His site-specific work for the Turbine Hall will be open to the public from October 10, 2023 – April 14, 2024.

Anatsui was born in Anyako, Ghana in 1944 and has spent most of his career in Nigeria.

Anatsui has developed a highly experimental approach to sculpture, embracing a wide range of forms and materials including wood, ceramics and found objects.

He has experimented with liquor bottle tops since the late 1990s and continues to push the medium’s boundaries in novel ways, creating radical, transformative sculptures which assume new shapes with every installation.

Interested in the changing histories of the objects he repurposes into shimmering sculptures, Anatsui fuses specific local aesthetic traditions with the global history of abstraction.

In 2015, Anatsui was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia and his work is held in major collections around the world.

Frances Morris, director of Tate Modern, said: “El Anatsui is responsible for some unique and unforgettable sculptures in recent times and we are delighted that he will tackle the Turbine Hall this autumn for the annual Hyundai Commission.

“Anatsui’s much-loved Ink Splash II 2012 in Tate’s collection enchants visitors wherever it’s shown, and we can’t wait to see how this inventive artist will approach a space like the Turbine Hall.”