Yonannes Gedamu: Another famous Ethiopian painter in Germany

"Wherever I am, I am at home with color...I think my year in Ethiopia, Kenya and now 15 years in Germany from my colors and compositions. They are all there, Africa is there and Europe at the same time." Yohannes Gedamu, 1995

Yohannes

Afewerk Tekle: His Brush is Stronger than the Machine Gun

Afework's villa and art gallaries. It is found near the office of African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. African's Union commissioner and the then mayor of Addis Ababa visited the gallery for the time before four years. Now it is open for the people. the reason why he closed his villa and gallery for visit is that he said politicians and journalists could't give him good respection. Now, he decided to surender his gallery for public use since he is old enough. His gallery is the first and huge in ethiopia.

The famous and pioneer Ethiopian artist, AFEWORK TEKLE, works

More works

Afework Tekle

There followed a chain of invitations from various parts of the world. In 1964 Afewerk opened an impressive and successful exhibition in Moscow which was widely attended: he proceeded to visit many of the Artistic cities of the Soviet Union, giving lectures on the way. Later that year he went to the United States at the invitation of the American Government to present his one-man show in Washington and New York. He toured the country giving twenty-two lectures at various Universities and other cultural centers.In the ensuing years he exhibited and lectured in Senegal, Turkey, Zaire, the United Arab Republic, Bulgaria, and Munich on the occasion of the XX Olympiad, Kenya and Algeria.Afewerk has been engaged in many challenging works, such as the mural of St. Paul’s Hospital which was completed early in 1972, and the second and larger version of his Last Judgment, now in the Adigrat Cathedral in Tigrai. Afewerk continued meanwhile with his studies of Ethiopian faces, landscapes and costumes in an attempt to preserve this heritage for coming generations. Later compositions included murals of the old sites of Addis Ababa (the market), Awassa landscapes, Harrar and Sidamo compositions, and a new study for a mural of the celebrated Ethiopian Saint Abuna Taklahaymanot, the founder of the monastery of Dabra Libanos.In the 1970’s Afewerk, though still deeply interested in the Ethiopian heritage and African culture, pondered on the unity of mankind, and on the need for world peace. Hence his painting entitled “Unity Triptych”: (a) The disunity of man. (b) Towards the unity of man. (c) Symbol of human unity. This won him the gold medal at the Algiers International Festival in 1977. In September 1980 Afewerk gave an important one-man show in the U.S.S.R., the first since the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974. This exhibition, the artist’s second appearance in the Soviet Union, was held at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Russian State Museum in Leningrad, and attracted a large number of art critics and art-lovers from many parts of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the highest order of “Hero of Peace and Friendship”, and was recognized as the most significant and serious twentieth century artist from the African continent.A year later Afewerk was invited by the Federal German Republic to exhibit his works at the IFA Galley in Bonn, and to give a series of illustrated lectures on his work and his Ethiopian artistic heritage, at Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt. The exhibition and visit re-awakened much enthusiasm among the German public with its long-standing scholarly interest in Ethiopia and her ancient culture.This visit, like those which preceded it, gave Afewerk the opportunity to meet, know and exchange views with many contemporary artists and creative thinkers, as well as once more to study and re-evaluate the great masters.In 1981, his work “Self-portrait” was the first from the African continent to be honoured for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Uffizi Museum, Florence, Italy.Later, in 1997, he attended the Biennale of Acquitaine, France, where he exhibited two works: “The Chalice and the Cross in the Life of the African People” (a study for a stained glass window 12mx11m) and “The Sun of Senegal”. He won the first prize, with the second, third and fourth going to competitors from Japan, France and Mexico respectively. He was also nominated Laureate of the Biennale, an honour that carried with it the Grand Cordon with the Easel of Gold, and membership of the French International Academy of Arts.Subsequently, in 2000, he was one of the few chosen as World Laureate of the American Biographical Institute at the 27th International Congress Millennium on the Arts and Communication in Washington DC.In 2004, at the Thirtieth Anniversary of the International Congress on Science, Culture and the Arts, held in Dublin, Ireland, Afewerk was awarded the Da Vinci Diamond “for his Contribution to the Wealth of Human Learning and Advancement of Modern Art”. At the same venue, the United Cultural Convention of the USA awarded the artist the Valiant Award for “his efforts in promoting Global Harmony through his Contribution to World Art”.Afewerk has mastered not only numerous media but has also shown ability to select the style most appropriate to his theme. He has not made a dogma of realism, symbolism, or abstract art, or of any other “ism” for that matter, but has used all of these approaches with imagination.In recognition of his valuable contributions to African Art as a whole, Afewerk has been given many awards, medals and high decorations by heads of state of many parts of the world.When we realize the extent of Afewerk’s creative output we can be confident that he will achieve much more in the future. His creative genius and his application to hard work have already set an example to his generation and assured his place not only as a leading Ethiopian artist but also as a figure in the art world of the twentieth century.

Abebe Bikila, The First olympic gold medalis in African History

Emperor Hailessilassie of Ethiopa awarding prize after his victory in marathon in Rome.

Abebe Bikila is the first Athlet to win a gold medal in olympic. He finished 42km and 192 meters without shoes Abebe bikila running marathon barefoot in Rome.

Abebe on the Appian Way
Runner Abebe Bikila became the first black African to win gold
by Gerry Brown

Abebe Bikila runs barefoot at the Rome Olympics in 1960.
Related Links
Olympics Overview 2008
Track & Field Preview
Encyclopedia: Track & Field
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It was one of those nights. Ethiopian Abebe Bikila was an unforgettable sight running along the ancient Appian Way during that warm Roman evening in 1960. The race, which began in the evening in order to avoid the stifling summer heat, came down to just two runners in the final miles, the unheralded Bikila and Moroccan Rhadi Ben Adbesselem.
The skinny Bikila, running barefoot, flew by the soldiers standing with flaming torches along the darkening course that evening and slowly pulled away from his Moroccan opponent before crossing the finish line at the Arch of Constantine in a world-record time of 2:15:16. With his 26-second win over Rhadi, Bikila had become the first black African to win a gold medal in Olympic history.
Asked later why he ran barefoot, Bikila replied, "I wanted the world to know that my country, Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism."
Fittingly, his win came in Italy, the nation that invaded his homeland three decades earlier. Bikila would battle back from an appendectomy to repeat as Olympic marathon champion four years later in Tokyo, becoming the first ever to successfully defend a marathon gold medal. But it was on the streets of Rome that Bikila left his mark.

WiKIpidia

Lalibela, the rock-hewn churches

king lalibela made this marvelelous church 500 hundred years ago to create little Jerusalem. The then christian used to walk long distance to Jerusalem for christian pilgrimage. King lalibela spent 30 years to build this church out out of a single rock.

The small town of Lalibela in Ethiopia is home to one of the world's most astounding sacred sites: eleven rock-hewn churches, each carved entirely out of a single block of granite with its roof at ground level.
Were it not for these extraordinary churches, Lalibela would almost certainly be well off the tourist radar. A dusty rural town nestled into rolling countryside, Lalibela only recently received electricity. It has few motorized vehicles, no gas stations and no paved streets. Isolated from the modern world, the town goes about its business much as it has for several hundred years.
Of Lalibela's 8-10,000 people, over 1,000 are priests. Religious ritual is central to the life of the town, with regular processions, extensive fasts, crowds of singing and dancing priests. This, combined with its extraordinary religious architecture and simplicity of life, gives the city of Lalibela a distinctively timeless, almost biblical atmosphere.
History
The town of Lalibela was originally known as Roha. It was renamed after the 12th-century King Lalibela, who commissioned these extraordinary churches. Lalibela was a member of the Zagwe dynasty, which had seized the Ethiopian throne around 1000 AD. When his rivals began to increase in power, Lalibela sought the support of the powerful Ethiopian Orthodox Church by building the churches in this small town.
King Lalibela's goal was to create a New Jerusalem for those who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (and to create a sacred city to rival powerful Axum, with its Ark of the Covenant). According to some reports, he had been to the Holy Land himself and was inspired by what he saw. But the king made no attempt to copy the churches of the Holy Land; in fact, Lalibela's sacred architecture could not be more unique.
The churches of Lalibela were not constructed — they were excavated. Each church was created by first carving out a wide trench on all four sides of the rock, then painstakingly chiseling out the interior. The largest church is 40 feet high, and the labor required to complete such a task with only hammers and chisels is astounding.
Popular legend has it that angels came every night to pick up where the workmen had left off. One of the churches, Bet Maryam, contains a stone pillar on which King Lalibela wrote the secrets of the buildings' construction. It is covered with old cloths and only the priests may look on it.
King Lalibela's project for gaining the church's favor had two unexpected results: the creation of a holy place of unparalleled beauty and the king's conversion to a religious life. After laboring for 20 years, he abdicated his throne to become a hermit, living in a cave and eating only roots and vegetables. To this day, Ethiopian Christians regard King Lalibela as one of their greatest saints.
The churches have been in continuous use since they were built in the 12th century. The first Europeans to see these extraordinary holy sites were Portugese explorers in the 1520s, one of whom noted in his journal that the sights were so fantastic, he expected readers of his descriptions would accuse him of lying

wikipedia

magnificent art 2000 years ago.

Axum (Aksum) is located in north central Ethiopia near the border of Eritrea. Archaeologists believe the Queen of Sheba (1000 BC) lived in the area of Axum. They have found ruins which are thought to be the Palace of Sheba a few miles outside the town. The history of Axum dates back to about 300 AD. The early city was located on the trade route between India, Arabia and Africa. It became one of the earliest holy cities in Ethiopia and Christianity was declared the national religion during the fourth century. The Orthodox Church claim to have the original "Ark of the Covenant" which housed the ten commandments in the vault of the St. Mary of Zion Church. The church also houses an impressive collection of bibles, crosses and crowns of early rulers. The city is also famous for its tall stele located in a historic portion of the city. These stele are carved from single granite blocks. Many of the original stele are no longer standing; however, of the remaining standing stele, the tallest is about 85 feet. The ruins of King Kaleb's Palace, dating from 500 AD, lie a short walk from the city. Archaeologists believe the current city of Axum is built on ancient ruins, but are unable to verify this because of the lack of funds and the need to relocate the current population.

Axum Ethiopan History