THREE EDITIONS BY EL ANATSUI TO BENEFIT MUSEUM IN PROGRESS
More about the editions (PDF)
In 2025 El Anatsui was selected to create the twenty-eighth Safety Curtain, a longstanding project by museum in progress for the Vienna State Opera, which since 1998 has transformed the 176 m² safety curtain into one of Europe's most signiflcant recurring public art commissions.
El Anatsui’s monumental image XOHANAMI graces the main stage, viewable by audiences before and after performances and during intermissions from September 30, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Translating from Ewe as “receive our song”, XOHANAMI promotes materials, forms, and symbols drawn from the artist's quotidian environment, in poignant contrast to the gilded opera house in which it hangs.
In generous support of museum in progress's continuing work, El Anatsui has made three striking wood prints – Male, Female and Head. These highly collectible editions are the intimate counterparts to the monumental Safety Curtain project. While Anatsui's massed crowd that appears on the curtain operates at an architectural scale to directly confront the opera audience, his lifesize prints isolate the human presence, offering a one-to-one register yet that carries the conceptual weight and resonance of the larger ensemble. Developed from individual wooden figures belonging to the sculptural installation that is the basis for the Safety Curtain image, each resulting woodcut asserts a distinct identity with lively variations in structure, surface, and colour that further denote character and gender.
Produced with El Anatsui at Chavanne & Pechmann's renowned print studio in Apetlon, the editioned works translate Anatsui's sculptural language of repetition and material memory into a concentrated graphic register where each image is printed in multiple variations with a joyous play of colour.
BROWSE ALL EDITION VARIATIONS
Edition 1: XOHANAMI – Male
Format: 184 x 87 cm
Edition: 20 copies, signed, 4 variations
Paper: Hahnemühle, 350g/m²
Print: Chavanne & Pechmann
Price: € 8500 (excl. VAT)
XOHANAMI – Male Variations (PDF)
Edition 2: XOHANAMI – Female
Format: 184 x 87 cm
Edition: 20 copies, signed, 4 variations
Paper: Hahnemühle, 350g/m²
Print: Chavanne & Pechmann
Price: € 8500 (excl. VAT)
XOHANAMI – Female Variations (PDF)
Edition 3: XOHANAMI – Head
Format: 100 x 78,5 cm
Edition: 60 copies, signed, 12 variations
Paper: Hahnemühle, 300g/m²
Print: Chavanne & Pechmann
Price: € 3500 (excl. VAT)
XOHANAMI – Head Variations (PDF)
