Tesfaye Tessema: Recent Paintings

Press Release

Addis Improvisation
Tesfaye Tessema
Recent Paintings
October 21st – November 27th, 2004

Skoto Gallery is pleased to present “ADDIS IMPROVISATION”, an exhibition of recent paintings by the Ethiopian-born artist Tesfaye Tessema. This will be his second solo exhibition at the gallery and a reception for the artist is on Saturday, October 23rd, 5-8pm.

Tesfaye Tessema is a leading member of his generation of African artists at the vanguard of synthesizing aspects of his rich cultural heritage with Western influences to create works of unique quality that are integral to the vision of the world he inhabits. As an African artist who has lived and practised in the West for the last three decades, he is acutely aware of the disorientation caused by migration and postcolonial experiences and he is conscious of the possibilities inherent in physical and spiritual journeys.

For the artist, jazz has been a continous source of inspiration and his work reflects the syncopated and disjunctive elements of this uniquely African American musical genre. They also possess an iconic quality that convey his Coptic and Byzantine heritage that are in form and spirit convincing. At the core of Tesfaye’s recent work is an open-ended improvisational sensibility. This allows for constant development and transformation as sophisticated variations of abstract elements in color and form upon which are superimposed a pictorial system composed of social and cultural markers are layered on the canvas. The Afro-comb, a symbol of Black cultural identity is endlessly reworked and re-interpreted as a metaphor for the affirmation of Self and an ongoing rumination on metamorphosis and it’s consequences.

Tesfaye was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he studied at the School of Fine Arts before leaving for the United States in the early 1970s and obtained an MFA in Fine Art at Howard University, Washington DC. His stay in Washington DC. exposed him to the richness and diversity of the art of Africa in general especially the classical art of West Africa where myth, metaphors and legend abound. His extensive travels in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Mexico in recent years has further broadened his perspectives on the commonality in socio-religious forms among various cultures. He has been included in numerous international survey including “Project Rolywholyobei – Circus from the Museum by John Cage”, 1994, Guggeinheim Museum, New York. among others. His works are included in several public and private collections.

Tesfaye Tessema in a conversation with Greg Tate, Harlem, New York City, October, 2004
Portrait of the artist as young African American

I was maybe 14 in Addis Ababa when I was admitted to the School of Fine Art in Addis Ababa. My family was very close-knit. We were invited to a national theater when Haile Selassie was running the country and the program was Duke Ellington. We didn’t know who Duke Ellington was or about Black America but these people were very big, very dressed up and wearing suits. Somewhere in there I hear the word “Harlem”. I see Haile Selassie giving Duke Ellington a big medal and I hear this word “Harlem” again. Where is this Harlem? From seeing Duke Ellington I thought it was a place where everyone would be dressing up, just like the band. Since then, I have this Harlem in my heart. And when I began understanding about the music and the struggle, I was lucky enough to come to the right place: Howard University. At Howard, the talk was hot and I was accepted and converted by African Americans. I was lucky I came when nobody was tired of helping African refugees. Because of that experience, I know I am the brother of African Americans. It’s natural. It works for me.

On Art and Spirituality

Even at Howard my national feeling was tough. It wouldn’t wash off. It kept showing up in my work. The color that I know is from Ethiopia. Ethiopia has a 4,000 year old history of visual art and I was lucky enough to see it organically. I know it’s going to disappear and I really feel its my business to keep that work alive. Part of what I grew up believing is that when I close my eyes I see heaven and hell and other spiritual things that make you think. If there is one common denominator to every human being, it is our spirit – this is the bottom line. That feeling is even higher and stronger with me when I’m in my creative mood. Especially coming from Ethiopia where we had Christians and Muslims and Jews in the place where they started. A place where the distance between Addis Ababa and Jerusalem or Addis Ababa and Mecca is something you can touch and can feel. For this reason, I trust the spirit.

On iconography and abstraction

I grew up being taken to a church everyday. And everything I know, my belief in a higher power, and being guided to be polite and be nice was very helpful to my survival in America. When I am alone that abstract higher power calms me down. It’s also embedded in my imagination. Ethiopia was part of the Byzantine time, when art and religion and vision and concepts and colors were used to promote the church. The artwork and architecture you see in a church can make you feel like its taking you to heaven. That strong connection I have to religious iconography is something that can never go away. When I close my eyes and think about love I see colors and those colors are from somewhere I picked up when I was younger. You can’t create anything if nothing has registered earlier inside. What you don’t know doesn’t come out, what you haven’t taken in won’t come out. Whenever you think about painting you look around your computer brain and you improvise to bring all your ideas, all your visual information out from that earlier time.

On the influence of Harlem

Art is a really tricky game in America. You can sell out without knowing it. I don’t go out to galleries to promote myself or my art. Sometimes I don’t even come to my own openings. An artist needs to be like a river, to be innocent and to be sensitive to everything. And to keep the culture clean. Right now, I don’t spend so much time with the Ethiopian community. Their struggle is my struggle. So right now I feel more a part of Harlem where everyone is Black and fighting the same war. Sometimes I want to cry when I look around this beautiful country of yours and the people at the bottom are African Americans. All these immigrants from around the world come here and are accepted, still the African Americans remain strong. To not think in terms of whose tribe you are is something I really appreciate. I’m swimming in that light.