When I last wrote to you about Africa, I used a letterhead parchment paper, There were many blank slots in the letter………… I can now fill some of these slots because…. I have grown older

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When I last wrote to you about Africa, I used a letterhead parchment paper, There were many blank slots in the letter………… I can now fill some of these slots because…. I have grown older

Artist El Anatsui (Ghanaian, born 1944)

Date1986

Dimensions73 1/2 × 56 × 1 in. (186.7 × 142.2 × 2.5 cm)

MediumWood carving, burned with oxyacetylene torch and varnished.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds given by Margy and Scott Trumbull

Object number

2013.40

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 01

DescriptionThis hanging wall sculpture is composed of 17 slats of reclaimed wood stacked horizontally to create a relatively flat, and generally rectangular, portrait-oriented panel. The wood varies in color from a light tan to a medium reddish brown. The slats are arranged to suggest the outline of an unrolled parchment scroll, which is enhanced by the carved outline of a scroll with the bottom curled over. The small amount of negative space around this outline is filled in with densely carved hatching. The surface of the scroll is incised with rows of symbols that suggest a pictographic language, but they are not actually any particular script. All of the carving is charred black with an oxyacetylene torch and the entire surface of the piece is covered with a shiny varnish.

Label TextEl Anatsui creates visually complex works from natural, found, and recycled materials. This work, in the form of an oversized letter, was made of repurposed wood slats. The carved symbols are a fusion of different indigenous African styles of writing that Anatsui has studied extensively. “Somehow I felt the need to answer to an allegation that Africa does not have a tradition of writing.” In this way, When I last wrote to you speaks to rich African cultural and historical traditions across the continent. It also comments on the relationship between African countries and cultures and the rest of the world. The entire process of producing his wood panel pieces is heavy with symbolism. Anatsui describes the variety of wood types and colors as representing the diversity of the continent of Africa. The action of carving the wood with a chainsaw represents violence and rupture in Africa’s history, while burning the cut lines of writing with a torch “civilizes” what has been stereotyped and dismissed by the West as “primitive,” while also suggesting the injuries of colonial rule.Published ReferencesBinder, Lisa M., ed., El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, New York, Museum for African Art, 2011, pp. 13, 43, repr. (col.) p. 119

Vogel, Susan M., El Anatsui: Art and Life, Munich, Prestel, 2012, repr. p. 106.

Enwezor, Okwui, and Chika Okeke-Agulu, El Anatsui: the Reinvention of Sculpture, Damiani, 2022, p. 68, repr. col. p. 69.

Exhibition HistoryToronto, Royal Ontario Museum; Wellesley, Davis Museum, Wellesley College; Austin, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Denver, Denver Art Museum; Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote To You About Africa, 2010-2013, cat. no. 42.