Institute of Ethiopian Studies

Introduction
Author(s): Shiferaw Bekele
Source: Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2 (December 2004), pp. 1-9
Published by: Institute of Ethiopian Studies
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41966157
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 JES, VoLXXXVII, No.2 (December 2004)

Introduction

Shiferaw Bekele

This special issue of the journal is dedicated to two of the most influential artists of
twentieth century Ethiopia - Gebre Kristos Desta and Skunder Boghossian - to mark
the naming of a cultural centre after the former and to commemorate the death of the
latter. The articles published in this issue give a concentrated treatment of their
works. We believe that, together, they provide an important contribution to the study
of modern art.

The growing corpus of academic research on Ethiopian arts has focused on the
history of traditional Ethiopian painting, particularly on the paintings of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahdo Church. In this field, knowledge has made huge steps forward
over the last four decades. The Institute of Ethiopian Studies has encouraged this
research from the very beginning. Most of it was done under its auspices and some of
it was published by this journal. By contrast, modern art has not attracted much of its
attention. In all its thirty seven volumes, the journal has not published a single article
on modern art while it has brought out eighteen on traditional art.1 It was for the first
time that the Institute decided to devote a special issue of its journal to contemporary
painting in Ethiopia. Together with its activities over the last two years, this decision
to honour the two artists marks an important departure from tradition. In the space of
two years, it has put up no less than twelve exhibitions on diverse social and historical
themes, which it did not handle in the past.2

1 The picture is only slightly better with regard to the Proceedings of the International Conferences of
Ethiopian Studies. In the fourteen proceedings, only two papers are on modern art while no less than
twenty two are on themes that fall within the broad domain of traditional art. To date, six international
conferences on the history of Ethiopian art have been held in either Addis Ababa (2) or Europe (4). I
have succeeded in consulting only the first and second proceedings - nineteen papers were published in
the proceedings of the First Conference while there was none on modern art. In the proceedings of the
second congress, two articles are included on modern art - one on Gebre Kristos and the other on
Skunder - while fifteen are on traditional art. It is obvious from these figures that modem art has not
attracted the attention of art historians as yet.
2 The titles of some of the exhibitions give an idea of their content:- Ethiopia in Black and White:
Images and Image Making, 1850-1960, an Exhibition of Photographs from the IES Collection (October
2004 to January 2005); Exhibition of the belongings and medals and manuscripts of Mengistu Lemma
on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of his death (23 July 2004 to 30 November 2005) ; Writers'
Comer: Haddis Alemayehu, Kebede Mika'el, Tekle Tsadiq Mekuria (August 6, 2004 to October 28,
2004); Patriots' Comer: Geresu Duki, Abebe Shenkute and others (October 28, 2004 to 16 December
2004); Repatriated Relics Comer October 29, 2005 to December 16, 2005); An Exhibition Celebrating
the return of the Aksum Stella and other restituted objects from the IES Collection (May 4 - June 4,
2005); How Swords Express Social Status (June 30, 2005 to December 12, 2005); Ethiopian Jewish
Material Culture (From 13 October 2003 to 30 February 2004); The Pastoralist Odyssey, European
Pastoralism in the 21st Century (February 18, 2005); Scar Stories: Photographs and Collected Stories
from Hamar, southwestern Ethiopia by Amanda Grandfield (15 September 2005 to 10 October 2005);
400 Years, Don Quixote in the World (25 November 2005 - 28 December 2005); Talking Tibebs - an

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2 Shi fe raw Bekele Introduction

The decision of the IES to honour the two artists coincides with an important series of
events in connection with Gebre Kristos Desta. In fact, the year 2005 occupies a
significant place in the history of modern art in the country. For the first time in the
history of the country, full recognition was given to the greatness of an artist by
opening a cultural centre after his name - Goethe-Institut Addis Abeba Gebrekristos
Desta Centre. The German Cultural Institute took the initiative to name their Centre
after the artist who had his training in Germany and whose works show a profound
influence of the German expressionist school. Gebre Kristos in turn introduced it into
Ethiopia. The authorities of Addis Ababa University readily made available a
building for the Centre and in many other ways cooperated with the German Cultural
Institute to facilitate the implementation of the idea. The Institute renovated and
restored the old building. It is located on the grounds of the Faculty of Business and
Economics.3

The occasion also marked the return of thirty paintings of Gebre Kristos from
Munich, which came to be housed in the same building. They had been given, some
time after the death of the painter, by his brother, Colonel Tesfa Desta, in custody to
the public museum of Munich known as Volkerkundemuseum München until the
situation was suitable for them to be returned to Ethiopia.4 The art community of
Ethiopia and the general public considered their return a great event of considerable
significance to the country.

The opening of the Centre was planned to be the crowning event of the centenary
celebration of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Germany and
Ethiopia in 1905. Other events were also organized for the occasion. A series of
lectures and panel discussions were organised under the general rubric of Art Forum.
The speakers reflected on the meaning of Gebre Kristos to the development of

exhibition of the products of the traditional weaving craft from Šero Méda (Addis Ababa) (16 December
2005 - ongoing).
3 The house used to be the residence of the former crown prince, Asfaw Wossen. It was built some years
before the Italo-Ethiopian war of 1935-36. He lived in it up to the war and for some years after the
liberation from Italian rule in 1941. He then moved out to a much bigger villa, which he built nearby.
The house was then taken over by the Ministry of Justice, which made it a High Court. It was in this
house that Brigadier General Mengistu Neway was tried in 1961. I am grateful to W/o Tenagne Taddese,
Programmes Officer of the Goethe-Institut Gebre Kristos Desta Centre for some of the information
regarding the house.
4 While there, they toured some of the major cities of the world - London (From 27 September 1995 to
26 November 1995), Tervuren Belgium (From 21 March 1996 to 21 September 1996), New York,
Chicago and Munich (From September 2001 onwards for several months going well into 2002). They
attracted crowds of visitors and considerable appreciation. I owe this information to Girma Fesseha, a
staff of the Volkerkundemuseum München. The New York, Chicago and Munich exhibits were within
the much bigger and much acclaimed Exhibition titled: The Short Century - Movements of Independence
and Liberation in Africa, 1956 - 1994. The place of the Short Century in the contemporary history of
African Art is discussed by Elsabet W/Giyorgis in her article in this issue.

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 JES, Vol.XXXVII, No.2 (December 2004)

modern art in Ethiopia, on th

audience turnout was remark
himself the student of Gebre K
to 2005. 6 One of the panel disc
and his paintings - which came
turnout was so big that the
discussion was very animated
because of shortage of time. S
Azeze of the Department of
University, decided to hold an
one too attracted a very big cro
previous one.

The Goethe Institute also pla

paintings had been prepared b
Cultural Institute published. I
university on themes related
brhan, research fellow of the I
together the published and unp
it, and included a very though
Language Studies of Addis Ab
be another major contribution
Amharic literature.

Goethe-Institut Addis Abeba

September 19, 2005 by the P
Wolde Giyorgis. An exhibition
the same day, which attracted

The long preparations for the o

in the United States of the oth
Boghossian. Skunder was a pi
country. He lived in the Unit
works of art of great value.
Americans. He died on May

5 One of these lectures was howev

"Skunder Bohgassian [s/c]: A Jewel o
teaches art history in North Carolina
his audience. Some of them stated tha
not seen his works.
6 I am grateful to Mr. Jörg Weinert
Centre for the information regarding t
7 1 am grateful to W/o Tenagne Tadd
Centre for the information in the parag

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4 Shi fe raw Bekele Introduction

residence abroad, Skunder was not as well-known in Ethiopia as Gebre Kristos in

spite of the fact that he had left a lasting impact on Ethiopian arts.8

Born on July 22, 1937 in Addis Ababa, Skunder went to Teferi Mekonen School, one
of the elite schools of the town.9 On the side, he took lessons in painting from
Professor Chojnacki, the leading historian of traditional Ethiopian art and a painter
himself working at the time in Addis Ababa University College as a librarian.10 Could
it be this connection that would explain his later use of motifs from the paintings of
the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and from traditional architecture? It is quite possible.
Be that as it may, at the early age of 18, he won the Second Prize for art on the
occasion of the Silver Jubilee Celebration of the coronation of Haile Selassie in 1955
given out to the best exhibitors in the Silver Jubilee Fair that was held on this
occasion.11 Soon after the prize, in the words of Konjit Seyoum who gives us a brief
profile,

... he was granted a scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. He attended St.
Martins School and the Central School of London and moved to Paris in 1 957. He
frequented the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts and the Académie de la Grande
Chaumière. While in Paris, he participated in the Pan African and Negritude
Movements with African artists and poets like Cheikh Anta Diop, Aimé Césaire and
their contemporaries. In January 1964 he had a one-man exhibition at the Galerie
Lambert in Paris where he presented twelve paintings. The exhibition was well
received by the public and was reviewed positively by the critic [sic]. He returned to
Ethiopia in 1 966 and has his first exhibition the same year at the Creative Arts Center
in Addis Ababa. He was also engaged in teaching at the Addis Ababa Fine Arts
School until 1 969. He was awarded the Haile Selassie I Prize Award for Fine Arts [in

8 Wendy Kindred, "Skunder and Modern Ethiopian Art," Paul Henze (ed.), Aspects of Ethiopian Art
from Ancient Aksum to the Twentieth Century (London, 1993), pp. 129-132.
9 The information that Skunder went to Teferi Mekonnen School is given in other profiles also. See, for
instance, Selamawit Legesse, "Art that transcends the boundaries, "Bien (first issue, 2005); see also the
profile given in Haile Selassie I Prize Trust, Haile Selassie I Prize Trust : 10th Year, (Addis Ababa,
1973). The latter source can be taken as an official profile of the artist. Nevertheless, this view is
challenged by an anonymous (Armenian) writer of a "letter to the editor" to the Ethiopian Herald who
argues that "...the seven formative years of Mr. Bogosian's [sic] education were spent in the local
Armenian school, which bespeaks his upbringing, consistent with his not so distant heritage." "Letter to
the Editor," Ethiopian Herald (November 13, 1966), p.3. This point brings home the need for a new
research into the life and work of Skunder.
10 He was also given private training by a professor called Jacques Godbout. In the words of a
contemporary writer on Skunder, we have the following interesting comment regarding the place of this
man in the life of the painter, "The first man to initiate Skunder into the broader world of modern art was
Jacques Godbout, former French Canadian professor at the University College of Addis Ababa. The
same man was also responsible for initiating another famous painter, Telemaque." Anonymous,
"Skunder Boghossian 'Afro-Metaphysics on Canvas'," Menen (Illustrated Monthly) (May 1966), p.24.
Cf. Wendy Kindred, p. 127, who writes that Godbout was a teacher in Teferi Mekonnen School.
11 1 got his profile from a flyer that Konjit Seyoum distributed on the occasion of the exhibition she held
for him on November 3 - 18, 2000 at her art gallery, Asni, in Addis Ababa. I am grateful to Konjit for
giving me this and the other materials she had published for the occasion and for answering to some of
my questions on December 2, 2005.

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 JES, VoLXXXVII, No.2 (December 2004)

1967]. In 1970, he moved to the

Art where he got acquainted w
American intellectuals. Then in
D.C. 12

His works are found in the collections of some of the best museums in the world - the
Musée d'Art Modeme of Paris, the Museum of Modern Art of New York, the
National Museum of African Art of jthe Smithsonian Institution of Washington D.C.
and the North Carolina Museum of Art.13 He exercised considerable influence on a
number of Ethiopian artists who studied under him in the School of Fine Arts in
Addis Ababa. The first generation passed the influence further to the younger
generation.

In spite of the profound influence he exercised on some members of the younger

generation of artists, Skunder and his works were not raised in public discussions on
Ethiopian arts in the last two decades of the last century. Artists did not refer to him
or cite his ideas in their discourse over the same period. And a number of young
artists stated that they did not really know Skunder very well, apart of course from his
name.14 The painter Wendy Kindred, who had lived in Addis Ababa and taught in the
Fine Art School in the 1960s, knows the reality very well. She writes that, in the years
after the 1974 revolution,

Artists within Ethiopia did not have access to his work, only one example of which
was on display in Ethiopia. That was the sequential painting of the legend of
Solomon and Sheba at the Addis Ababa Hilton. From this series alone, a derivative
work done on commission, it is difficult to understand Skunder significance.15

One young artist's testimony confirms this observation. "I first became an admirer of
the legendary painter," writes Esseye Medhin, "before I even had a chance to view his
original works. Like many of my generation, I was able to see only reproductions of
the art in black and white."16 Realizing this situation, Konjit Seyoum, owner and
manager of one of the leading art galleries of Addis Ababa, decided to hold an
exhibition of his works by soliciting the few art collectors in town to lend her the
pieces of the artist. They kindly agreed and she put up the exhibition from November
3-18, 2000. The title of the exhibition, Tribute to Skunder, was meant not only to
express the tribute of the gallery to the man but it was also intended to familiarize the
younger generation with his works and to rekindle interest in the man. It turned out to
be a well-attended exhibition, much beyond the expectations of the organizer. Young

"Ibid
n Ibid
14 Interview with Konjit Seyoum on December 2, 2005.
15 Kindred, p. 126.
14 Esseye Medhin, "A Tribute to Skunder Boghossian," Bien (first issue 2005), p. 4 1 .

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 6 Shiferaw Bekele Introduction

artists showed immense cur

before his death.

The Addis media reporte

Ethiopian Herald, just to cit
title it chose revealed its at
Boghossian passes away"17 I
patriarch of a generation
government - announced th
the prime minister of the c
deceased.19

A few days later, his admirer, Ato Teferi Wossen, very quickly organized a memorial
for him at the Hilton Hotel. Two friends of the painter, Ato Zerihun Yetmgeta (a
senior painter who followed in his footsteps and an instructor in the School of Fine
Arts and Design of Addis Ababa University) and Professor Andreas Eshete (President
of Addis Ababa University) were actively involved in the organization of this
memorial. The Hilton Hotel generously offered its hall for the gathering, a room for
an exhibition and Sheba Lounge for a Press Gathering. On May 1 1, the national press
corps was invited to meet and discuss with four lifelong friends and acquaintances of
the artist - Dr. Berhanou Abebe, Mr. Michel Papatakis, Ato Sebhat Gebre Egziabher
and Ato Zerihun Yetmgeta. The turnout was considerable. In the following days and
weeks, the various radio stations, the national television, government and private
newspapers and magazines reported on the death of the artist and gave his profiles to
their audience. On the morrow of the press conference (May 12), the memorial was
held in the hall of the hotel. His friends and admirers as well as a member of his
family - his sister Mrs. Boghossian, W/o Konjit Seyoum, Professor Andreas Eshete,
Ato Zerihun Yetmgeta, Ato Yohannes Gedamu and Ambassador Berhane Gebre
Kirstos - made speeches. On the same day, an exhibition of a few of his works was
held in a side room. The paintings were obtained from a private collector, Ato
Tesfaye Heywot.20

In the United States also his memorial was held. The 3rd Bien Art Show, which was
held in Washington, D.C. from 24 January to 2 February 2005, was dedicated to the
memory of Skunder and the first issue of Bien Magazine honours, in the words of the
editor, "the life and art of Skunder Boghossian, a pioneer in modern African Art who

17 Ethiopian Herald (8 May 2003).

18 Ibid.
19 Just to cite two examples: Addis Admas (a weekly Amharic paper) ( Genbot 2, 1995); NéSert (a weekly
Amharic paper) (< Genbot 2, 1995). Both papers gave considerable space (running to more than one page)
to the obituary and published in-depth interviews and other pieces.
20 I owe the information about the organization of the memorial to Ato Teferi Wossen whom I
interviewed in his house on 16 December 2005.

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 JES, V0I.XXXVII, No.2 (December 2004)

has taught and inspired many A

in the magazine a moving po
"explore his life."22

On its part, the IES decided

contemporary painter, and to m
Desta, by devoting one of the i
the 20th century. The contribu
both for a long time and who h

Eshetu Tiruneh, a painter of sta

Eshetu's very interesting essay
his reminiscences of his mast
Secondly, it is an extended anal
Kristos. This professional ana
enable the wider public to app
usually uninformed national "d
the essay occupies a special plac
scholars have already noticed
1963 to the turn of the 1970s,
to Eshetu for proposing a perio
period, the circle period" and so
art historians will accept it,
attention to the need for perio
in which he indicates where th
article. It is not obviously a com
of the paintings, particularly t
contribution to research.

An economist by training and a

literary critic and a connoisseur
of Gebre Kristos beginning fro
similarly he made the acquainta
in this piece he shares with his

Bekele Mekonen, another studen

a painter and a poet, and an ins
Ababa University, looks at Gebr

21 Selamawit Legesse, "Editorial Note,

22 Ibid Selamawit Legesse, "Skunder
Esseye Medhin, pp. 40-43.

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8 Shi fe raw Bekele Introduction

the poetry with the paintin

many things in common.23

Elsabet W/Giorgis, current

long standing friendship
held innumerable discussion
Afro- Ameri can art and A
We believe it will shed lig
informed the art, of this lit

The other contributor to

Skunder for over ten years
journal, Gossa tries to bring
years he interacted with Sk
kept. Some of the remar
incomprehensible to the us
peephole into the way the m
provide a direction of en
particularly to those who de

The contribution by the gue

political and intellectual fra

I would like to express my

editorial latitude when pr
deal with Gebre Kristos s
tampered with this "overl
different angles - for exam
point of view of technique
regard to transliteration, I h
well-known names (Gebre
transliterate Amharic or Ge
in their careers, some of th
written their essays strictl
always be within the conv

23 Seyoum Wolde has adumbrat

"Gebre Keristos Desta: Painter and
Century ed. Paul Henze (London,
She has made a very useful analy
Changing World: Trends in Conte
Sixth International Conference o
Birhanu Teferra and Richard Pa
"Skunder Boghossian (1937-2
(Summer/Fall 2003), is also very

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 JES, Vol.XXXVII, No.2 (December 2004)

present them in the way the au

for the sake of academic formal

Finally, the consistent use of th

variants (Eskender or Alexand
Encyclopaedia Aethiopica has an
youthful days, the man was cal
instance, he signed his 1954 por
Boghossian". The Ethiopian Hera
"Ato Alex Boghossian".27 Durin
however, he signed his paint
"Skunder" in English, thus su
Amharic name. (See Figs. 13,
Ethiopia Observer consistently
his works. The Haile Selassie
Mtifír (in the Amharic versio
English version of the same tex
equivalent of the Amharic "Es
over slowly over the Amhari
writings. In this Issue we ha
Axnharic and English articles b
last three and half decades of hi

I have decided to reprint or p

13ff.) in order to make them
access to his paintings. Also I h
essays, a painting of Gebre Kr
(Fig. 12) because of its valu
appreciation to Elsabet W/G
reproduce from their slide c
reproduce from Ethiopia Obse
cover design and to Messay Y
paintings.

The front cover is the famous work of Gebre Kirstsos entitled "Elohe or Crucifixion
or Golgotha" (1963). The back cover is Skunder's grand painting entitled "The End
and the Beginning" (1971).

25 Elisabeth Biasio, "Eskender," Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, volume II (Wiesbaden, 2005), pp. 383-384.
26 I am grateful to Mrs. Ema Guevherian, Principal of the Kevorkoff Armenian School for this
information and, above all, for showing me the 1954 portrait of the prelate. I am also grateful to Mrs.
Anahid Katchadurian, the cashier of the school.
37 Ethiopian Herald (December 3, 1955).
28 Haile Selassie I Prize Trust, Haile Selassie I Prize Trust (Addis Ababa, 1973), p.7 1.

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