ozeum domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home3/abrakart/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131Abdurahman
M. Sherif, a man of decision, an accountant, an instructor, and an artist known
for his silk screen printing, never gave up in search of something new until he
realized his heart’s desire. He was born on September 5, 1931, at Mercato’s
Adere Sefer in Addis Ababa.
He
started his artistic path by performing some illustration and design work while
he was an accounting student at the Addis Abeba School of Commerce. Ever since
he was a young child, the collection of paintings he saw at Mercato in Haji
Yosef’s house has stuck in his memory.
When
he entered the second year of his course and started to question his inner
feelings, he realized that the accounting and secretary courses he was studying
did not satisfy his true needs. So he understood that he could not continue in
this situation. At that time, he was sent to Khartoum with three other young
Ethiopians in a scholarship program to study as a chartered accountant under
the first cultural agreement between the governments of Ethiopia and Sudan. He
chose his own path and received a free education in an art school in the same
city rather than attending the education for which he was sent to Khartoum. He
enrolled there and began studying under the renowned Sudanese painter and
African modernist Ibrahim El-Salahi.
He
had to make his own decisions about the future once he got back from Khartoum.
Although making this choice was difficult, he was adamant about it and fully
confident that he would find a way to support his family whether he won or
lost. He purchased a bicycle and set out for the countryside to explore the
nearby forest while earning money to write and type a relative’s communication
at home. He started doing drawings and numerous watercolor paintings while
there.
When
his father used to see Abdurahman sketching pictures in the street, he would
tell him to stop, saying: “If your neighbors witnessed you acting in this
manner on the streets, they would think you are insane. Please put an end to
the street art.” Abduraman’s paintings were eventually accepted, and some
galleries began purchasing them. He was motivated to meet Ale Felege, the
founder and head of the Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts, by these watercolor
paintings.
He
began studying and teaching at the Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts in 1967.
Emperor Haile Selassie I was due to pay a visit at the time, thus Mr. Alefelege
assigned Abdurahman M. Sherif to paint the king’s portrait swiftly.
Abdurahman then received further fortune when the king admired his charcoal
method artwork. He received funding to study at the Kassel and Berlin art
academies in Federal Germany from 1968 to 1970, where he received instruction
in modern painting and graphic art.
Upon
his arrival home, Ms. Mary Tadese, the then-Assistant Minister of the previous Ministry
of Education and Fine Arts, asked him to work at the former Haile Selassie I
Craft School. In this sense, he claimed that having the opportunity to acquire
art teaching techniques at Kassel Art Academy had aided in his ability to
instruct art at a similar institution. He later worked as the Addis Ababa
School of Fine Arts’ director for over two decades and taught painting and
graphic arts there from 1975 to 1991. He also served as the graphics
department’s head and teacher for a number of years at the same institution.
Abdurahman
M. Sherif has taken part in numerous individual and group exhibitions both
domestically and internationally since 1971. He worked alongside six other
Ethiopian painters, all of whom were instructors at the Addis Ababa School of
Fine Arts, including himself, during the historic art exhibition held in 1971
at the former Emperor Haile Selassie I Theatre, now the National Theatre of
Ethiopia. His highly developed visual creative skills have earned him several
accolades both domestically and internationally. He is therefore considered as
one of Ethiopia’s most renowned and esteemed modern and contemporary artists.
His early devotion to his
spiritual well-being served as a solid foundation for his current artistic
character. He chose to attend a spiritual school because of his family’s strong
support for Christianity, which also inspired him to make Christianity the
central focus of his artwork.
Worku Goshu was born in
1942 in the town of Ambo, and from the time he was very young, he began to
create paintings of flowers for the new year and patterns for housewives’
embroidery works, which served as the beginning of his longer artistic path. He
says he studied contemporary education with Ethiopian playwright Louret Tsegaye
Gebremedhin while receiving his spiritual education at Yeneta Akalu religious
school in Ambo town.
In 1960, he joined the
Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts, and after studying painting, drawing, and
graphics, he graduated in 1964 with the prominent Ethiopian modern artist
and his classmates Worku Mamo and Ketsela Atenafu, who was the first female
student at that school. In 967, in order to strengthen his modern education, he
acquired a grant to study at the Academy of Arts in Krakow, Poland, and he
obtained his master’s degree. It was also a good opportunity for him to meet
his life partner, Barbara Goshu, at the Academy of Arts in Krakow.
He traveled to various
European cities while attending school in Poland. He improved his artistic
knowledge as a result of this educational tour. Worku believes that Marc
Chagall, a well-known Ukrainian symbolist painter, has influenced his painting
style. However, Gishu’s artwork strongly reflects the fusion of traditional
Ethiopian painting with modern style.
After returning to his
country with his wife, he worked at the Berhanena Selam Publishing House for a
while. In 1974, he was employed at the Addis Abeba School of Fine Arts, where
he was assigned to the painting department and taught art for twenty-seven
years. As he is an artist who has a close connection to and respect for the
ancient spiritual tradition of Ethiopia, he has been successful in his effort
to represent the spiritual heritage with a new modernist style.
Worku Goshu asserts that
his church education not only influenced him to pursue a career as a painter,
but that his faith and spirituality are central to his artwork. He laments the Western and Eastern worlds’
declining spirituality. He believes that God is the one who guards Ethiopia.
Beyond words, his work shows the reflection of his thoughts on spirituality.
He has attempted to
convey his personal insights and understandings through his visual art, even
though his works predominantly address subjects relating to the teachings of
the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. He is a well-known modern painter from Ethiopia
who focuses more on the traditional spiritual and cultural aspects of his
country, Ethiopia. He believes that creating his art with a unique spiritual
underpinning has helped him develop his sense of artistic self.
Worku Goshu is recognized
for structuring free compositions, and his works cover a variety of topics. He
is also well-known for painting landscapes and portraits. He is well-versed in
adopting an abstract aesthetic to portray a variety of works, and he is
well-known for his watercolors.
His first exhibition was
in 1972, and since then, he has taken part in several private and group art exhibitions
both domestically and internationally. Worku Goshu has won numerous awards for
his developed visual art skills, both in Ethiopia and overseas.
Since his childhood, Zerihun
has been able to realize his dream of becoming a painter through his continued
efforts and artistic pursuits. It is said that he was given the title “the
scientist” when he was attending high school at Teferi Mekonnen School
because his hand was always connected with handicrafts. This was a great
indication that the soul was devoted to art in the early morning.
Zerihun Yetmgeta was born
in Addis Ababa in 1940. He won a national art competition when he was 18 years
old. In 1963, after attending drawing lessons at the Empress Menen School for
one year, he joined the Addis Ababa Fine Art School in 1964, which is
considered to have laid the foundation and strengthened his modern art training
and knowledge. In that school, he gained great knowledge in painting and
graphics. In 1960, he graduated, receiving his diploma from Emperor Haile
Selassie I. Among the teachers who taught at the school, he says that he has
great admiration and respect for his German graphic instructor Carl Heinz
Hansen Bahia and the great modern Ethiopian painter and poet Gebre Kristos.
While Hansen Bahia’s lithographic techniques influenced his works, Zerihun says
that he has always followed his own artistic path. Zerihun attests that his
teacher, Gebre Kristos Desta, attained a prestigious and prominent position in
the history of Ethiopian modern art and penetrated the hearts of his students.
Known for his clear and
straightforward speech, Zerihun is a prominent artist who has been able to
promote himself internationally among the modern and contemporary Ethiopian
painters. According to local and foreign experts who have written various
research articles about Zerihun’s artworks through his wide experience and
practice, the structures of the composition that are seen around different
symbolic and allegoric pattern representations associated with the artistic
style of the renowned Ethiopian and African modern artist Skunder Boghossian
can be seen strongly in Zerihun’s works as well. It is said that in the late
1960s, Zerihun and Skunder worked together in a studio. Zerihun also admits
that during his time as a student at Addis Ababa Fine Arts School, he had a
culture of working together with his teachers. He says this approach greatly
facilitated learning and the exchange of ideas between students and teachers.
Zerihun is a contemporary
Ethiopian painter, graphic artist, and art educator who has gained
international recognition through his strong work discipline and dedication.
Since 1970, he has been able to participate in various private and group
exhibitions in the country and abroad. He has received special recognitions in
Ethiopia and outside of Ethiopia for his developed visual art experiences.
Therefore, he is recognized as one of the most prominent modern and
contemporary Ethiopian artists.
Desta’s childhood hobby of watching the moon at night with her
father, who was a gardener and a music lover, made her experience the joy of
taking care of the flowers.
She was born in 1953 in
Tigray, northern Ethiopia, and studied under the mentorship of the pioneering
and well-known Addis Ababa Art School teachers. She was raised, in particular,
under the tutelage of the renowned modern Ethiopian painter and poet Gebre
Kristos, who had a significant influence on her paintings, making her one of
the few Ethiopian pioneer female artists who dedicated her entire life to art.
More importantly, her relationship with the internationally renowned Ethiopian
modern artist Gebre Kristos was not only as a student and teacher, but also as
a close friend, professional, and father.
Desta speaks highly of Gebre Kristos, who gave
her his personal and professional tools when he left the country he loved and
immigrated to a foreign country, and she still especially treasures tools. From
this, it is not difficult to understand that all is kept in her sharp memory,
especially in her happiest eyes.
With the help
of her former French high school teacher, her painting was sent to compete in
the Shankar International Children’s Art Competition organized by the Indian
Foundation in 1964. Along with her, a fellow Ethiopian participant, painter,
and graphic artist Tulu Guya, was named the winner. Right after she joined the
9th grade, Princess Hirut Desta discovered Desta’s inborn talent for drawing.
This paved the way for Desta to study at the Addis Ababa Fine Art School, which
was established in 1957 by the well-known modern painter and art educator
Alefelege Selam.
The Creative
Art Center, which was established in 1963 at the former Haile Selassie I
University and is now part of the current Addis Ababa University, was an active
and vibrant artistic platform. Different artistic events, such as theater,
poetry, music, etc., were performed and attended by prominent Ethiopian modern
creative artists such as Gebre Kristos, Behailu Girma, Tsagaye Gebremedhin, and
others with great artistic talent and caliber. Desta made attending these types
of events her much-loved routine every Saturday. Working tirelessly in the
studios became Desta’s habit. This hard work paid off when the university gave
her the privilege to participate in the first young painters’ group exhibition
that was held at the Creative Center. The event received wide media coverage at
the time.
She was the
only woman among the women who studied with her to successfully complete her
studies and receive a diploma from the Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts in 1969.
After getting a grant to study abroad, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Fine
Arts from California Lutheran University in 1973. She is diligent in her career
and is known for her work in the field of public relations, serving as the head
of the Department of the Ethiopian Tourism Trading Enterprise. In addition to
leaving her mark on the scene of Ethiopian painting, Desta has become a symbol
of strength for female painters who have followed in her footsteps.
Desta, in her long artistic practice and
experience since 1970, has participated in different private and group
exhibitions in Ethiopia and abroad, and her well-experienced visual art has
received national and international recognition. Recently, she was bestowed the
title of Laureate Artist by the current prime minister of Ethiopia. In a
nutshell, Desta is widely regarded as Ethiopia’s most prominent modern and
contemporary female artist.
Tulu Guya is a plastic artist who has created his
own visual language. Although he has explored different socio-cultural and
historical themes in his long career, his main concern has always been to seek
and build an artistic style that manages to establish a social dialogue and
create a relationship between trees and humanity. In addition, he also tries to
represent horses. It is important to highlight the great technical mastery of
drawing and the use of the line as one of its dominant resources in his
depiction of houses, representing their emotions as a symbol of loyalty, hope,
and beauty in the hostile world we live in. It is worthwhile to recognize the
great technical mastery of drawing and the use of lines as one of the dominant
resources of painting in Tulu’s artistic creation.
Sometimes, as children, we have a different dream.
However, when the sun of luck shines on someone, it suddenly connects their
luck to their destiny. That opportunity they seize today will ultimately become
their destiny. Tulu Guya was born in 1938 near Dalo, Bishoftu, in Eastern Shoa.
He dreamed of becoming a royal guard and a historian. He enjoyed reading books,
and he was particularly drawn to those with pictures that told stories.
Although he never dreamed of becoming a painter, his inborn attention to detail
gave him the chance. In 1964, when he was a high school student, his drawing
won a second-place prize at Shankar’s International Children’s Drawing
Competition. Although Tulu confessed to having no inclination towards painting as
a child, winning the competition was a sign that he had an inborn affinity for
art.
The
painter and graphic artist Tulu Guya linked his love of nature with his works
without being limited by the influence of the famous artists that surrounded
him within the family, including the well-known Lemma Guya. The stories of the
trees he knew just like his own palm and the folktales he had heard as a child
in the local culture became central themes in his art. Thus, in his visual
language, he made them speak of the lives of damaged tree branches whose leaves
have been hurt. To this end, Tulu used trees as the main subject of his works
to show his own world through his own culture and natural environment. His
remarkable memory is a testament to his unparalleled ability to be a
storyteller and a repository of the cultural wisdom of his community. From
1966–1970, he studied painting and graphic arts at the Addis Ababa Art School
of Fine Arts, where he graduated with good results and received his diploma
from Emperor Haile Selassie I. As for his excellent school activities, his
veteran teachers, such as Ale Felege, Tadesse Gizaw, and Abdurahman Sharif,
have all attested to his great educational performance, artistic skills, and
knowledge.
After
graduation, he was assigned as an art teacher to Arba Gugu, in the Benchi Magi
zone of southern Ethiopia. The fact that Arba Gugu was a place surrounded by
forest gave him the possibility to be more interested in the subject, and he
began to study the nature of trees. He also worked as a Senior Technician of
Appropriate Technology at the Education Development Center of Chilalo District
Schools, in Asela town, until 1982. There had been problems in schools in
facilitating educational support materials such as human anatomy, tables, and
maps; he helped the schools address this problem with his high-quality wooden
reproductions. During his stay there, he was recognized as a model teacher. In
all the institutions he worked for, Tulu demonstrated his great artistic
creativity for social services, which is a clear testament to his alignment
with the principle of art for art’s sake. His high level of skill in graphic
arts contributed enough to his different artistic creations. Because Tulu paid
much attention to trees in his artistic works, a holiday postcard from the
former FDRE, Girma Woldegiyorgis, addressing the country for three consecutive
years, was decorated with Tulu’s tree-related works.
Since 1970, Tulu Guya, in his long artistic
experience and career, has participated in many private and group art
exhibitions in the country and abroad. He has received special recognitions in
Ethiopia and abroad for his highly developed visual art experiences. Therefore,
he is considered one of the most prominent modern and contemporary Ethiopian artists.
A
deep spiritualism that defines his profound humanism emanates from the temple
of art, which is both magical and classical. We learn that artistic creation is
an intellectual activity from our unconventional conversation with him, which
is nuanced with varying exquisite tonalities. For the great Marxist
aesthetician, art is an extraordinary world of knowledge that is very close to
philosophy in the discovery and deepening of the conception of our vast world.
The
land where he was born in 1941 E.C., the wisdom embedded in the Harar people’s
souls and minds, the magic of traditions and customs, which he still vividly
recalls and recounts, much like an ethnographer or anthropologist, his
relatives, the Addis Ababa Fine Arts School where he studied and taught
painting, prophetic artists and teachers like the great Gebre Kristos, whom he
greatly admires and claims to have a transcendental in him, all contribute to
the artistic identity of the modern painter Tibebe Terffa.
In
his distinctive artistic universe, a magical world is found that is constructed
in his philosophical thought and that explores his own surroundings as well as
those of the Far East and the Caribbean—a world where magical realism is built
and numerous human identities intersect. The philosophical painter Tibebe uses
his works of art to appeal to the enigmatic nature of humanity. He is an artist
who is concerned about the state of art in his country today and in the future.
He feels overwhelmed by a form of art that is divorced from market and uses art
as a tool for establishing and fostering dialogue among the humanities.
Tibebe
Terffa, who was named Tibebe Selassie by his family, is an Ethiopian modern
visual artist rich with wisdom and personal philosophy. For him, art combines
art and philosophy, and he enters his own world, surrounded by the wide
horizons of an imaginary ocean, with the freedom of his mind, which is given to
him by the high and low pitch of the voice that originates from the musical
beat. In this way, he experienced the lines and shapes of the ideas associated
with his spirit and soul, and while playing with the colors with his brush, he
narrated the feelings that were compressed in him on the canvas. Harar’s
influence, which he absorbed in his childhood, can be seen in his paintings of
unity and diversity. Each is a full-fledged painting that can be appreciated
for the cultural value and artistic beauty of the visual narratives on its own.
It is a cycle based on the progression of
human life from conception to death. Round objects provide shape to our ideas
since they are a manifestation of life, and all forms of design are found on
them. The wisdom that it reveals is how crucial it is to follow the peace of
the soul in order to use imagination to bring the invisible world into the
light. This is because the actions taken when the mind is free to think are
blessed. He feels that the artist has no other means of expressing his true
inner feelings except via art since the artist’s soul is disclosed at that
instant and because that moment will never be replicated. Wisdom endures.
He
worked in a number of government offices following his graduation from the
Addis Ababa School of Art. He also worked as an art instructor at the renowned
Harar Medanialem School and as a freelance illustrator for Kuraz Publishing,
where he created the illustrations for the book covers of different writers.
Tibebe
has had a lengthy career as an artist and has taken part in numerous
solo and group exhibitions both domestically and internationally since
1974. He has won numerous special accolades and prizes on a national and
worldwide level during his long career as a visual artist. As a result, he
is considered one of our nation’s most revered modern and contemporary
painters.
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.