Review Detail

Bottle Tops: The Art and Life of El Anatsui

Kids Nonfiction 499

Interesting Ghanaian Art

October 11, 2022

Overall rating

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Learning Value

4.0

El Anatsui is an artist from Ghana who was captivated by art from a young age. After his country was liberated from the British in 1957, he went to art school with a feeling that he could break boundaries and didn't have to adhere only to the Western art concepts he studied. Inspired by Ghanaian art forms he saw at the National Cultural Centre, he set out to make art that connected people to the history of the country. He moved to Nigeria to teach, and started to experiment with different forms, including found objects. After finding a large collection of bottle tops, he created the artwork for which he is best known.

Good Points

Zunon's brightly colored paper collage and paint illustrations capture the folk art aspects of Anatsui's work. The illustrations are clear and show a lot of good detail, especially of how the bottle caps are disassembled and made into a sort of tapestry. The text gives us a good look into a modern artist from an interesting part of the world.

There are no shortage of books about artists, from famous figures written about in Art Is Everywhere: A Book About Andy Warhol by Jeff Mack or Portrait of an Artist: Georgia O'Keeffe by Lucy Brownridge to books about folk artists who might be less well known, like Henry Ossawa Tanner: His Boyhood Dream Comes True by Faith Ringgold or Aminah’s World by Genshaft. Art classes in particular will enjoy this lok at Anatsui's use of found materials to make artwork, and might be motivated to try to duplicate his style in class!