El Anatsui creates new editions in support of museum in progress

Since 1998, each year museum in progress has invited a living artist to transform the safety curtain of the Vienna State Opera, establishing one of Europe’s most significant recurring public art commissions. For the 2025/26 season, El Anatsui has created three large-scale limited-edition prints – Male, Female and Head – in support of the organisation’s ongoing programme. The editions offer an opportunity to acquire works by Anatsui, with all proceeds supporting museum in progress’s future commissions and public art initiatives.

Anatsui’s Safety Curtain project, XOHANAMI – Ewe for ‘receive our song’ – presents the image of a gathered crowd, composed from wooden trays associated with market activity in Ghana. These trays are among the first found materials the artist incorporated into his work in the 1970s. The three prints draw out individual figures from XOHANAMI, bringing the human presence within the crowd into sharper focus. Printed directly from the life size wooden figures used in the composition, each work accumulates layers of colour, texture and nuance through the printing process.

Produced at Chavanne & Pechmann’s renowned print studio, Male, Female and Head translate Anatsui’s sculptural language into a vivid graphic form.

Find out more and purchase the prints here.