Lulseged
is someone who possesses great confidence in himself and is a person who never
gives up in the face of defeat. Lulseged Retta was born in Addis Ababa in 1953.
When he was a student at Kelemework School, he frequently won first and second
places in a painting competition held on Mother’s Day at the school. This early
chance appears to have paved the way for his artistic passion.
Later, around 1966, after seeing Christmas
flowers painted by his friend and the well-known Ethiopian modern painter
Tadesse Mesfin, Lulseged tried to develop his artistic skills by depicting his
friend’s paintings again. He confesses that doing this helped him be more
interested in painting. From 1971 to 1976, Lulseged Retta studied at the Addis
Ababa School of Fine Arts and graduated in painting. During the 1980s, he
traveled to the former Soviet Union to study fine art at the Repin Art Academy
in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), where he received his MFA with honors. He
said that he was the first student in the academy to be authorized to study in
all fine arts fields.
After he graduated from the Addis Ababa School
of Fine Arts, he worked at the Hager Fiker Theatre, serving as a stage designer
and as a head of the art section from 1977 to 1979, and after returning from
the former Soviet Union, he worked at the Ethiopian Tourist Business Trading
Enterprise (ETTE) as a head of the art department from 1987 to 1996 and as a
Senior Artist for production in the Technical Division as well as head of the
Commercial Art Department from 1995 to 1996.
Lulseged
is a strong artist who has succeeded despite many setbacks. This personality
has enabled him to create a unique artistic world and identity. Content-wise,
he merges indigenous knowledge with traditional thoughts in his paintings.
Regarding form, he is an experimental artist who paints by mixing traditional
style with the modern philosophy of painting. Lulseged has developed his
artistic language by fusing Ethiopian traditional style with modern conception.
Lulseged’s
artistic works attempt to depict gender bias in Ethiopia as a result of the
long-lasting patriarchal culture, in which girls and women were often afraid to
express their feelings openly due to the influence of culture and cultural
taboos. He expresses this using his visual language, like the large and oval
eye shapes in the paintings of women, which can communicate lots of secrets
nonverbally. Historically, the depiction of expressive and exaggerated eyes has
been a longstanding artistic practice in Ethiopian traditional art. Lulseged
has mixed this with modern style to create his own artistic touch, which is the
dominant feature of his paintings.
Lulseged
Retta is a modern and contemporary artist who has been a hardworking painter
from his schooldays to maturity. He has been working tirelessly to find his own
artistic taste. Moreover, he is an artist whose name is mentioned among the
prominent Ethiopian painters. He is a plastic artist who has a great love for
his profession and music, which is part and parcel of pictorial compositions.
In a time
where everyone is running after their interests, Lulseged has made a great
contribution by going beyond his own interests by creating a group exhibition
formed by eight painters for the first time. The exhibition was named
“Merge.” He organized the exhibition with the purpose of supporting
and motivating other artists. As such, Lulseged is considered a successful
artist who fulfills great social and professional responsibilities. His
contribution to the establishment of the Art of Ethiopia in Sheraton is
paramount. He worked diligently for twelve years as an organizer of the
“Art of Ethiopia” annual exhibition that was held at the Sheraton
Addis every year from 2008–2019. His continued and fruitful participation in
such artistic events has greatly benefited Ethiopian contemporary painters and
our country’s art community.
The
landmark of his long experience in art came as early as 1977, when Lulseged
participated in a group exhibition together with the prominent Ethiopian modern
painter and poet Gebre Kristos and other artists. Since that historical
exhibition, he has displayed his works in many private and group exhibitions in
different galleries in the country and abroad. In short, Lulseged Retta is
considered one of the top names in Ethiopian modern and contemporary art.
