Popularité - Popularity

1990

Ballpoint pen, led pencil, graphite and ink on paper
108 x 75 cm
Pigozzi collection

Exhibitions:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gallery 351- Ethiopia
from 09/01/12 to 04/30/14
54th International Art Exhibition ILLUMInazioni – ILLUMInations, La Biennale di Venezia, Italy

"The art of the late Ethiopian artist Gedewon (1939–2000) is intimately tied to this long tradition of talismanic art expressed through scroll paintings. A master traditional healer himself and a skilled initiate of talismanic art, he progressively moved beyond creating scrolls designed for individual patients to compose large-scale drawings in ink, ballpoint pen, and pencil for a wider audience. These works are characterized by intricate calligraphic compositions that draw extensively on imagery of the Cross, a motif central to devotion and a preeminent cultural icon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Gedewon's art creates a visually powerful bridge to the group of processional crosses on display, an ensemble recently augmented by a rare example of cast bronze openwork processional cross. Created during the thirteenth or fourteenth century in a liturgical center of the Ethiopian Highland, this example is striking for its elegantly balanced and serene composition."
Yaëlle Biro
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Talishmans of research and study"
(Gedewon)

Seydou Keita Photographer