Zerihun Yetmgeta
The following is an excerpt from a short introductory article written in 1985 on the occasion of Zerihun Yetmgeta's 10th one-person show. It was first printed in part on the invitation distributed by The German Cultural Institute, Addis Ababa. I am fortunate enough to have observed not only the success and astonishing creative achievements of artist Zerihun Yetmgeta, who is now considered to be one of the major symbols of modern art in Ethiopia, but also to be able to introduce Zerihun, the man, my long time friend. Zerihun, is a well-built man with a gray mustache and beard that points decidedly downward, an anxious face, and a feverish watchful eye. Looking at him, one may say he is born artist. Zerihun's temperament and outlook are fundamentally Ethiopian. He loves his profession, his family, and his art students who constantly need his care and advice. His simplicity and frank character allows him to share his passion with people of all ages or social standing. Zerihun is the type of artist who creates a comfortable atmosphere and entertains everybody at a party or social gathering. It is not surprising to see him in downtown Addis exchanging warm greetings with officials or diplomats, businessmen or football players, comedians or authors. Popular as he is among his fellow citizens and foreigners alike, he is independent and proud of his achievements and has always worked as his own master. Always true to himself and his inspiration, he systematically arranges his creative moments in order to produce the many works shown at his annual exhibitions and to finish private or governmental commissions. These aspects of Zerihun represent an iota of a facile mind and do not sufficiently explain his phenomena. The best key, and the only useful guide to understanding him, is still within his art. Although the dilettante who is dazzled and fascinated by his annual exhibitions is eager to know and read more about him, I found it very hard to introduce in this very short commentary this inexhaustible astonishing creative person, dedicated art teacher, and devoted father. However as I try to explain his unfathomable works, I hope the curious reader might come to know something more about him. What is most striking about Zerihun's work and retains a viewer's attention is his daring and lively assimilation of modern painting trends and techniques with traditional art production, combination of modern and traditional materials, and the use of modern ideas with traditional themes. He applies modern painting methods such as grattage, collage, frattage, or decalcomania on traditional supports such as wood and sheepskin. Unlike other artists, none of these pictorial devices are used for their own end. Instead he intervenes on the free forms at a conscious level with his imaginative and technical fertility thus making works with familiar, traditional images or composed of strange creations and simply-formed decorative motifs from artifacts. He constantly references Ethiopian yet he is able to assimilate and master a variety of artistic trend and styles. Associating traditional images or religious iconography with historical or contemporary, secular ideas and symbols, he enhances the formal and thematic suggestions by delineating the images and forms with a paintbrush or a pen. The images produced are achieved through successive serial and simultaneous waves. For example in Weekend, The Shield and the shadow, Traditional view, The Window, and Research from Manuscript, the figures are similar, however their tonality and the harmonious organization of plastic elements differ. These figures located in flat planes of color and distorted from the natural world appear to be a representation of veiled Ethiopian priests. They are simultaneously juxtaposed and superimposed upon one another, sometimes floating on a boat, or standing at the façade of a church. These works, which involves skillful manipulation of brushwork and color harmonies, probably metaphorically symbolize contemporary church ideas, and as such, respond so intensely and so imaginatively to specific events and the changing conditions and challenges of an institution. Again in the African Mask Research series and An Overview African Mask and From the Stage we notice figures derived from traditional African arts. he gives us a gratuitous clue to the association through the titles. Without mimicking the models yet remaining faithful to their iconography and disposition, he gives African Masks a new sense and meaning, using them to solve the plastic problems of line, space, form, color, and texture. He altogether destroys their "fetish" character; by injecting his own creative imagination to the spiritual expressiveness of their forms and made them Fine Arts. His Illumination series is made on sheepskin like the ancient illuminated bibles we find at Kebrane Gabriel or other monasteries done centuries ago by those anonymous Ethiopian painters. In these series a synthesis of most of his works can be seen. All kinds of mythological birds and animals, traditional artifacts, magic scrolls or talisman, religious iconography, and decorative motifs, and images of African masks are skillfully and laboriously drawn. Some of these mythological birds and animals, African mask-like creatures in his other works such as Freedom, The search and The Bird View can be identified. The principal media in his Illumination series are pen and ink with some color-wash, and a monochromatic support. While in other works, the feeling of serenity and loftiness in the cosmos is expressed in a flat plane of blue combined with vivid colors, which serve to create a sensuous and strange delight. Another motif of Zerihun's works reminds us of the innumerable calm and expressionless faces of saints and angles painted in our churches. In The Fishing, Bon voyage, See the Dragon he schematizes and deforms the anatomy and head with slender, staring, nervous eyes. These simple and sober forms in delicate tones of yellow create many paradoxes and contradictions. In tune with all aspects of reality in contemporary situations, these formal concepts are perhaps intended to express social events in which humor and irony mingle. Zerihun has a cosmopolitan outlook. Modern concepts and ideas reside in him firmly and, as such, do not seem to be disturbed by technological progress. He is rather obsessed by traditional beliefs, superstitions, and taboos that are still practiced in traditional Ethiopian society, and he seems determined to ridicule and exorcise their mystery using his pictorial imageries. His paintings, woodcuts, and drawings are in tune with 20th century universal art trends and as such should be judged from this perspective. Since his first group show in Europe in 1966 and his first one-person exhibition in Addis Ababa in 1970, he has participated in over 25 group and solo shows, and has produced thousands of pictures. In all of his exhibitions he has been communicating ideas, and feelings effectively, intensely, and vividly by altogether abandoning the science of anatomy, mathematical, single-point perspective, and traditional western representation. Zerihun applies his artistic methods, approaching, if I may say, the style and characteristics of Ethiopian art and the rules of Ethiopian aesthetics. Visit Zerihun Yetmgeta's website at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~zerihun/index2.html By: Esseye Medhin, 1985 |
