Painting Ethiopia: the life and work of Qes Adamu Tesfaw.

A Project of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, in collaboration with the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, "Painting Ethiopia: The Life and Work of Qes Adamu Tesfaw" celebrates the creativity of one of Ethiopia's outstanding living artists. Curated by Raymond Silverman, the exhibition brings together thirty-five exceptional paintings from the collections of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, the Fowler Museum, Michigan State University Museum, and several private collectors. It may be seen at the Fowler Museum from March 6 through August 28, 2005, and the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama, from January through April 2006. Additional venues are under consideration.

Silverman has authored a book of the same name, with contributions from Neal Sobania and Leah Niederstadt, to accompany the exhibition (120 pp, 70 color reproductions). The book includes a substantial essay on the artist by Silverman, an autobiography prepared by Qes Adamu in 2003, and a catalogue of the paintings in the exhibition, each reproduced in color with an extended caption. The volume will be published by the UCLA Fowler Museum and distributed by the University of Washington Press.

Painting Ethiopia" introduces the extraordinary paintings of a little-known artist who is, nonetheless, one of Ethiopia's living treasures. Qes (1) Adamu Tesfaw (Fig. 1) has been working quietly in his home in Addis Ababa for the last forty-five years. The exhibition presents thirty-five of Qes Adamu's large (2m [6 1/2'] in their longest dimension) narrative paintings on cloth, each one a stunning visual statement. These paintings offer poignant interpretations of religious, social, and political events of the distant and recent past that have shaped the lives of so many Ethiopians.

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I first visited Qes Adamu's home in Addis Ababa in May 1993. From the outside, the house was a run-of-the-mill wattle-and-daub structure, but as soon as I stepped inside I knew I was in the presence of an exceptional individual. Every wall in the living/dining area of the house was covered with figurative paintings--a life-size image of an Ethiopian Orthodox priest greeted me as I walked through the front door, St. George Slaying the Dragon and the Madonna and Child stood behind a dining table, Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba appeared behind a couch (Fig. 3), and Ethiopian musicians and priests in procession covered the walls on the opposite side of the room. I had never seen domestic mural painting like this, and I have yet to encounter such paintings in another Ethiopian home. I soon learned that Adamu used the living room in his house as his studio and that he has produced thousands of paintings over the last forty-five years.

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Even as a young boy, Qes Adamu was consumed with the desire to draw. He would sketch with charcoal on virtually anything he could get his hands on. He recalls, "When I was walking along and found a piece of charcoal I would sketch something on the rocks. If someone was walking on a path that I had been down, they would know that I had gone down that path!"

Qes Adamu has a passion bordering on obsession for "making things." In addition to his paintings, he weaves macrame bells and crosses and experiments in other media. In 1997, he proudly hauled out a life-size figure of an azmari (musician) that he had modeled in papier roache. When he had to cut down a tree in his yard to accommodate an addition to his house, Adamu carved the stump into the form of a warrior. But he is particularly devoted to painting. In a 1993 conversation, Adamu explained that he has a "love for painting" and that he "dreams about it most of the time." He added that "painting is not just an occupation--it is my life."

The Life of the Artist

Qes Adamu was born in 1922 EC (2) and spent his youth in Bichena, a large town situated in eastern Gojjam, about 200km (124 miles) north of Addis Ababa. (3) His father was a priest in the Orthodox Church, and it was decided early on that Adamu would follow in his father's footsteps. As a young boy, Adamu began his religious education at the nearby church of Bichena Giyorgis (dedicated to St. George). A few years later, Adamu and his family became aware of his intense commitment to his artistic endeavors, which eventually led Adamu to abandon the priesthood for the life of a commercial artist in the country's capital, Addis Ababa.

Qes Adamu believes that the finest paintings he has ever seen are the murals on the maqdas (holy of holies) of Bichena Giyorgis completed in 1910 EC by three church-trained painters: Aleqa Hailu, Desta, Wudu, and Aleqa Kassa. (4) He recalls being awestruck by these images, especially the paintings of St. Mary and St. George. At the time, he assumed they had been created by angels! When he was a little older, he learned these paintings had been produced by men, one of them, Aleqa Kassa Getahun, his uncle. His appreciation for these paintings was not diminished, but it was at that moment he began to dream of one day being able to produce such images himself.

Aleqa Kassa passed away before Adamu was born, so at the age of twelve, he began studying with a priest-painter, Qes Gebez (5) Anteneh Gebru, who had been one of his uncle's pupils and was also a close friend of the family. Adamu would go to church school in the morning, and in the afternoons work on his paintings. At the age of fourteen his father took him to Addis Ababa for the first time, to be ordained as a deacon. Though he and his father stayed in the capital for only a short time, Adamu remembers being impressed with all the activity and opportunities the city offered. He continued his religious studies and recalls "traveling with Qes Gebez Anteneh, wherever he went to make paintings." At the age of twenty-six, Adamu was ordained as a priest.

Soon after, in the late 1950s, Qes Adamu decided to return to Addis Ababa to explore the painting scene. He was fortunate that his godfather was Yohannes Tessema, a prominent artist who had arrived in Addis Ababa from Bichena in 1933. Yohannes was sixteen years older than Adamu and a long-time family friend. By the time Qes Adamu traveled to Addis Ababa, Yohannes was a major commercial artist and well connected with the European expatriate community and the royal family.

It was at this time, only four years after his ordination, that Qes Adamu chose to abandon his life as a priest. Yohannes offered Adamu a place to stay in his house and was very supportive of the young painter. He appreciated the quality and originality of Adamu's work and employed the artist at a salary of 50 birr a month, slightly under the average salary in Ethiopia at the time. In return, Adamu gave all the paintings he produced to his godfather, who sold them through the Empress Menen Handicraft School (where Yohannes was employed) or his other contacts in Addis Ababa. During this period, Yohannes directed Adamu to produce paintings dealing with aspects of Ethiopian culture.

This business relationship ended when Qes Adamu met and began selling his works to Benedetta Riva, the owner of a popular souvenir shop. Signora Riva, as Adamu refers to her, had arrived in Ethiopia from Italy as a young woman in the 1930s. Adamu and Signora Riva formed a close relationship. The income Adamu received from selling his paintings to her made it possible for him to purchase land and build a house--the house in which he still lives--for his young family in 1970.

Life was good during the late 1960s and early 1970s. But in 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown in a coup d'etat that marked the beginning of seventeen years of oppression by the Derg, (6) during which Adamu and most other Ethiopians experienced hardships like they had never known before. Signora Riva and her family were forced to leave the country and Adamu found himself without his primary patron. Life was a struggle for him and his family until fairly recently.

During this period, Qes Adamu established a relationship with another commercial painter originally from Bichena, Solomon Belachew, who had opened a souvenir shop next to the Itege Taitu Hotel (the oldest hotel in Addis Ababa) in 1973. Adamu recalls that though Solomon was a friend, their relationship was sometimes strained. Solomon paid him very poorly for his paintings and at times failed to pay him at all. Adamu apparently gave Solomon hundreds of paintings to sell. Indeed, over half the paintings in this exhibition come from a collection of roughly ninety paintings that was recently acquired by the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, from the Belachew Family Souvenir Shop. Even today, several of Qes Adamu's paintings can be seen on the walls of the shop, displayed along with the work of a host of other painters.

Qes Adamu has a warm, genuine demeanor and a marvelous sense of humor. He is rather shy. In the commercial art world in Addis Ababa he has the reputation of being a "secretive" artist. Indeed, a certain mystique has developed around him. Yet, although he may seem a bit reticent, he certainly is not a recluse.

Adamu would be the first to admit that he is not a merchant. He is an artist, and a prolific one. Adamu has not kept records of his paintings, but he says that he has produced several thousand since he moved to Addis Ababa forty-five years ago. He is, of course, very interested in selling his work; after all, this is how he has supported himself and his family. But the primary impetus for his painting is the need to express the ideas that constantly emerge in his mind's eye. During my visit to Qes Adamu's home in November 2001, the artist had his daughter

Hanna pull from a cupboard roughly fifty paintings he had recently completed. I commented that he had been busy; he replied, "It is not good to sit down."

Though most of his work has been destined for the commercial market, Adamu has also produced paintings for churches. His most significant project was undertaken back in his hometown of Bichena. In 1979 EC the priests from the church of Bichena Giyorgis asked him to paint the doors and windows of the qene mahlet (choir) of the church (Fig. 5). Qes Adamu was not paid for the commission. He explained that, at the time, the church did not have the money to pay him anything. The priests gave him the supplies he needed (paint, brushes, cloth) and people in the community provided him with room and board while he worked. His time and expertise were a gift to the church that had played such a significant part in his early life. For Adamu, it was an honor to have his work in the same church as the paintings that had so inspired him as a youth.

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In recent years the quality of life for Adamu and his family has improved, due in large part to the recognition he has received from being featured in two exhibitions: "Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity" at Michigan State University in 1994 and "I Santi Cavalieri: Arte e Leggende d'Etiopia" (Saints on Horseback: Art and Legends of Ethiopia), an exhibition of work from the collection of Benedetta Riva shown at a private gallery in Rome in 1996. He also recently was featured in an episode of Meto Haya, a popular weekend program on Ethiopian television. Signs of prosperity may be seen in the renovations he has made to his house--new metal windows and doors, a veranda, and a new studio space (Fig. 4); Adamu no longer has to paint in the living room.

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Last year, I asked Qes Adamu, "When someone looks at one of your paintings, what is it that you would like them to see?" True to form, Adamu's response was direct and to the point. "How can I speak about what is going on in somebody's mind? Only they know why they like my work. I can't read their mind! People should form their own impressions from my work ... what I do on my part is just do my best, that is what I desire, I just try to do my best. The rest is left up to the observer." At the age of 74, Adamu is still strong and still possesses the passion, the creative spirit first experienced as a young boy, that has inspired him to produce so many stunning works of art.

Tradition and Creativity

Adamu's paintings, especially those dealing with religious themes, are contemporary expressions of a fifteen-hundred-year-old tradition associated with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; even those with nonreligious themes reflect Ethiopian Orthodox style. Religious imagery such as is found in Qes Adamu's paintings has been presented in three contexts: illustrations on parchment in religious manuscripts; wood panel paintings (icons); and murals on the walls of Orthodox churches, in which paintings on cloth are pasted, either before or after composition, onto the church wall. Qes Adamu has worked in all three media, but he has spent most of his time producing large paintings on cloth--the painting associated with the mural tradition. This is his true forte.

Mural paintings found in the Orthodox churches of highland Ethiopia have served three purposes. Until the twentieth century, the primary patrons of churches and monasteries were the aristocracy, the only group in society who possessed the means to sponsor such projects. The motivation for their contributions was salvation. To this day, members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church believe that making such gifts to the Church is a means for attaining a place in Heaven and God's protection while still on Earth. Once installed, paintings of the saints, especially St. Mary and St. George (who are believed to be the most efficacious, and thus are the most popular), function as a medium through which individuals may seek spiritual intervention in their lives. The paintings are also didactic. In a society that has been to a large extent illiterate, especially in rural areas, such paintings have served the important function of teaching people about the lives of Christ and a host of other religious figures. They include imagery from both the Old and New Testaments. Adamu is very much aware of this important function, which today extends well beyond the Church. While talking about a recent painting dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Fig. 15), he pointed out that, "This painting is my gift to help teach. I am a painter, so I teach through my painting."

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The church murals often include secular elements. It is generally held that the first nonreligious images to appear in religious paintings, probably in the eighteenth century, were representations of the donors who commissioned the work. During the first half of the nineteenth century, paintings documenting the military exploits of the country's leaders began to appear in the churches supported by these rulers. By the turn of the century, these military scenes became quite prominent.

The urban-based commercial painting profession in which Qes Adamu participates grew out of this tradition (Fig. 11). Painters who had learned to paint while receiving an Orthodox Church education in towns like Bichena began settling in Addis Ababa at the turn of the twentieth century, soon after the city was established as the country's new capital by Emperor Menelik II in 1886. There they developed a genre of painting directed at a new market, foreign visitors to Ethiopia. Many of these artists continued to receive commissions to paint churches while producing paintings on cloth and parchment for foreigners.

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The advent of photography had a significant impact on commercial painting in Addis Ababa. Some artists referred to photographs as models for their paintings. Significantly, Adamu chose not to pursue such "modern" modes of visual representation. Though he has worked from photographs in magazines, for instance for compositions such as Haile Selassie Receiving Queen Elizabeth (Fig. 12), he does not attempt to emulate the photographic realism that one encounters in the work of some other painters. When asked why he does not produce naturalistic portraits, Adamu said it was a conscious decision. He could easily develop the skill to produce more naturalistic, or what he refers to as "modern" paintings, but he has chosen to remain a "traditional" painter. He knows there are other idioms of visual expression. When differentiating between "traditional" and "modern" art, he uses the Amharic terms bahelawi and zemenawi. Significantly, the root of bahelawi is bahel, meaning culture. Zemenawi is derived from zemene, a word that conveys a sense of that which is current, of the moment, contemporary. Qes Adamu sees himself a bahelawi painter--a painter grounded in his culture. He explains that he paints subjects that one finds in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible and other religious texts, and in a style that has deep roots in Ethiopia.

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Adamu's explanation of why he has come to prefer painting secular subjects offers interesting insights into his creative process. "In the past, my interest was making paintings of saints or things of that sort. Nowadays, my interest has shifted. I like to make paintings having to do with culture, social life, politics [i.e., affairs of state], palace decorum, and daily life. I may still produce more paintings related to the former, but if the circumstances were different, I would focus more on the latter. It has a lot to do with creativity. Making paintings of secular subjects gives me the freedom to introduce new ideas in my work. It gives me room to deal with more themes; in short, I can 'expand,' for these subjects are not static. You do not have this opportunity when working on religious paintings. You can't introduce even the slightest changes in paintings that convey sacred messages. Doing so may have serious consequences [i.e., may be construed as blasphemy] ... whereas working with secular subjects does not impose such limitations. You can use your imagination and make changes. In terms of importance, church-related paintings are held in higher esteem, but nonreligious themes offer the best setting for creative work.... It is like [the pleasure derived from] riding a horse or swimming in a river."

Much of Qes Adamu's inspiration derives from observation. Over the course of his life, he has viewed paintings in many Orthodox churches; he has studied countless religious texts, many of them illuminated; and he has lived for over seventy years. He draws upon all this experience as he formulates ideas for his paintings. On several occasions I spoke with him about his sources of inspiration. "Old paintings ... have always brought new light to me, they move me. Whatever aspect of an old painting I may attend to--it could be the rendering of an eye, a forehead, a countenance, or an eyebrow--I receive new inspiration, especially when I want to draw or paint the images of saints. For other things, including natural or social themes, I use my own imagination and creativity based on observations. Old paintings are also a source from which I get information, for instance, about costumes for my paintings. When I am telling a story from an earlier period, I need to depict clothes that are no longer worn today, no longer part of our culture. Knowledge of this sort can only be obtained from the books that contain paintings. But I also add new features if the need arises, like using new styles of clothing. I am open to using the old and incorporating new elements."

In addition, Qes Adamu has drawn inspiration, primarily for the painting of religious imagery, from religious texts. "When I read books, I take interest in the narratives, and the narratives I read somehow produce images and visions, which I later use to make paintings. Stories in the Scriptures help me to visualize things in my mind, which, as a result, provide the substance for making paintings. There are sometimes pictures that accompany the stories that might provide the initial basis for my work. I develop them further based on the narratives to provide a fuller picture."

Picture as Narrative

The title of the exhibition, "Painting Ethiopia," derives from the breadth of subjects that Qes Adamu represents in his paintings. In addition to offering an overview of the artist's life, it presents a selection of paintings that reflect the depth and breadth of Adamu's work. The exhibit is divided into three sections: paintings with religious themes, historical narratives, and scenes of everyday life. Each explores a range of subjects. As a whole, the thirty-five paintings in "Painting Ethiopia" reveal Adamu's virtuosity as an artist and the affective presence of his paintings. Indeed, it is the work itself that speaks most eloquently about the expressive power of Adamu's large paintings on cloth.

I have asked Adamu on numerous occasions to comment on the formal qualities of his paintings, for instance, to talk about composition and color. Rarely has he offered any insight into his visual thinking. Like so many artists, he cannot, or chooses not to, articulate why he does what he does.

What is most important to Adamu is the nature of the subject, the significance of the stories told in the paintings, not the painting's formal qualities. For example, when I asked why he liked a painting of sheep being sold at a rural market--one of the paintings in the exhibition--he explained, "This is about sheep. Sheep represent simplicity, sacrifice, innocence, saintliness, righteousness. Sheep, on the other hand, also have a lot of [practical] significance for Ethiopians. We buy sheep from the market and slaughter them during holidays, they hold a central place in that collective experience. So they are doubly important, their symbolic significance and their utilitarian value [as a source of food]."

This preoccupation with speaking about the content of his paintings is captured in one of the two videos that have been prepared for the exhibition. Here, Adamu talks about one of his paintings, a scene of a wealthy woman, Seit Weizero, on horseback accompanied by her entourage--what used to be a common sight in many parts of the country. He provides a detailed description of all that is going on the painting, but does not say a word about how or why he developed his distinctive interpretation of the subject. The other video juxtaposes views of Adamu's home and Addis Ababa, the city in which he lives, with the artist talking about aspects of his life and work as a commercial painter. Together, the videos offer an opportunity to hear about Adamu's life and work in his own words.

Attempts to discuss his work in relation to that of other artists met with little success. He basically refused to comment on the quality of the work of other painters. When shown a painting by one of his peers, he usually remarked that it was a good painting because it successfully told such and such a story, and he left it at that. In 1993, the first time I asked him about three paintings purchased from Solomon Belachew's shop that I suspected were Adamu's work, he was reluctant to say much about the paintings. He wouldn't even acknowledge they were his own.

It is curious that on several occasions Adamu has speculated that he has produced thousands of paintings over the years, but always adds that he probably would not be able to recognize many of them as his own. This response is perhaps an expression of a social and cultural environment that generally eschews individuality. Indeed, it is only recently that painters like Adamu began signing their paintings. The impetus for doing so came from those buying the paintings, some of whom, he explained, would not buy a painting from him unless it were signed. It is likely that Adamu's own modesty also contributes to this situation. He does not see himself as an exceptional painter. Adamu is aware that his paintings are different from the work of others, but he does not view the work of other artists in any sort of comparative or competitive light. What motivates him to produce his exceptional visual narratives derives from his own expressive impulses.

Regardless of Adamu's inability or reluctance to comment on those aspects of his work that set him apart from other artists, anyone familiar with painting in Ethiopia, particularly those idioms rooted in the traditions of the Orthodox Church, can readily observe that his work is exceptional. Qes Adamu employs compositional devices that are very uncommon, if not unique. Some of his compositions, especially those that include a limited number of figures, display a monumentality that is rarely seen in Ethiopian painting (Fig. 6). Adamu is often able, especially in his monumental compositions, to convey a sense of drama or spectacle, a dynamism that animates his pictorial narratives. His figures move on and off the picture plane.

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Though his compositions cannot be described as naturalistic, Adamu is a keen observer of nature. This is especially apparent in his representation of horses--animals that he greatly admires and has studied closely since his youth.

Eyes are in general given special attention in Ethiopian painting; Adamu elaborates on this convention by including figures who gaze out of the picture space, effectively pulling the viewer into the story (Fig. 9). At times, a group of individuals in a scene are depicted facing in one direction but their eyes suggest they are not all looking at the same thing.

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One of Adamu's hallmarks is presenting the characters in the narrative from behind: One observes only the backs of people or horses as they move into the pictorial space he has created (Figs. 2 and 13).

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Unless asked to copy a painting, Adamu approaches each project as a new problem. His myriad interpretations of popular subjects, such as St. George Slaying the Dragon, are poignant expressions of this creative energy.

The paintings presented in this exhibition are but a small sample of the large corpus of subjects that Qes Adamu has painted over the last forty-five years--subjects that present religious and historical narratives as well as scenes of everyday life. It brings together an exceptional group of paintings--paintings that both are visually compelling and tell important stories about Ethiopia and Ethiopians. "Painting Ethiopia" celebrates the life and work of one of Ethiopia's outstanding living artists.

(1.) Qes is the title for a priest in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

(2.) "EC" designates a date conforming to the Ethiopian Calendar, which begins each year on Mesqerem 1, the date equivalent to September 11 (September 12 if a leap year) in the Gregorian Calendar (GC). The Ethiopian Calendar is seven years behind the Gregorian Calendar. Thus, the year 1922 EC is equivalent to 1929-30 GC.

(3.) Additional information about Qes Adamu's life may be found in Raymond Silverman, "Qes Adamu Tesfaw: A Priest Who Paints," in Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity, edited by R. Silverman (East Lansing and Seattle: Michigan State University Museum and University of Washington Press, 1999, 132-55, 261-66).

(4.) Aleqa is the church title for a chief priest; it may also be used as an honorific for someone not necessarily a priest, bur nonetheless well-versed in the teachings of the Orthodox Church.

(5.) Gebez is the title for a chief priest in an Orthodox church.

(6.) Derg was the popular name given the Provisional Military Administrative Council, the Marxist regime that ruled in Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991.