PART-1
“Artists are dedicated people by definition. Their main reward is the satisfaction they get from the creative process itself”:
Gebre Kristos Desta, Painter and Poet
BY: KFLEEYESUS ABEBE
Like missing a town I never been
Like missing people I never known
I miss those people in the past
Those people who still are immortal
Whose work circle the world
Some even caused their flag sent to other planet
For you I longed for the past
‘cause you are talent reaching top
‘cause in you I see where we could reach
I envy your passion, hardwork but I envy your love most.
If time machine is real and I can visit the past, there is no time I would wish to be than this. The time Honorable World Laureate Maitre Artist Afewerk Tekle, painter Skunder Boghossian, poet and painter Gebre Kirstos Desta and other modernist doing their magical art and praising their country. Poet and Painter Gebre Kirstos Desta astonishes me most for his versatility, patriotism, one can see through his powerful poems; and strengh to work despite criticism from people with conservative outlooks. At the beginning Gibrekirstos hasn’t got enough attention but he persisted on his work and became pioneer of modern Ethiopian art.
Born in the town of Harar, the son of a high ranking clergyman Aleka Desta Nego, Gebre Kirstos hasn’t faced the common challenge of many Ethiopian artists during inception: family control. In fact, Gebre Kirstos has enjoyed encouragement from his home. In an interview with Sydney W. Head from the African Arts 1969 issue, he said, “ My father was a graphic artist, and he encouraged my interest in art when I was a child. He used to make make books-decorated religious books on parchment.” As a boy Gebre Kirstos spent a lot of time copying and illustrating religious manuscripts while assisting his father as an apprentice. So, his early influence and introduction to art was the traditional religious art of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. He completed his elementary education in Harrar and attended the Haile Sellassie I Secondary School, and graduated from General Wingate High School. In 1957 he earned a scholarship to study art in Cologne, West Germany. In the same intervew, Gebre Kirstos said his interest to impression however developed before he joined college when he was reading everything he could find. But the college equipped him with the techniques of modern art which he finally introduced to Ethiopia.
Gebre Kirstos was criticized for including European techniques in his artwork, rather than staying with traditional local methods. However, he was also among the artists that enjoyed the patronage of Emperor Haile Selassie, who was trying to advance modernization of Ethiopia by promoting progressive ideas in education, art, and industry. In 1965 he received the Haile Selassie I Prize Trust Award for Fine Arts and was named the first African expressionist.
Speaking to FBC, painter Eshetu Tiruneh described Gebre Kirstos as “ limitless.” Eshetu said, “Gebre Kirstos’s expressionist works are connected with socio life of people, religion and Ethiopian traditional art works. His works are neither realistic nor absoulte abstract. They are in between. “
Gebre Kirstos has shown a gallery upon his return to Ethiopia. Painter Eshetu has the interest of studying the progress of Gebre Kirstos in his
works. “He has taken all the works from young age to adulthood out and showed them in a big exhibition. That exhibition as I understand it is like a hand down of what he has done to Ethiopia. Looking them I tried to understand his progress. He has a time of search. Like any student, there are some paintings that did on his own ways. After the time of search, he began paintings that has contents of circles. Third, he used or paint flowers with abstract meaning. So, I named them times of flowers. So, his works can be categorized as Times of search, Times of circles, Times of flowers and the last times of grey.”
One of his poem “To a painting” gives the impression that he has worked hard to the level of what he became at last. The journey he took to abstract or expressionist painting are described in this poem.
“To a painting”
To search
To search
The uncreated to create
Baiting a dialogue with the invisible
Interrogating life
To move
To go to go
Beyond the moon, beyond the stars, beyond the sky
Journey to the unknown, to occupy the unoccupied.
Gebre Kirstos was a mystrious man. Little is known about his private life. The onlything that might be known is he had a German lover. But nothing is known about her except that she was named Marga and that he painted a portrait of her.
As much as his painting excellence, Gebre Kirstos was also gifted poet whose imagination and language proficeny still amaze art lovers. For Gebre Kirstos, painting and poem are very related. In an interview with Sydney W. on the African Arts 1969 issue, he said: “Basically the two arts are not so different. For one thing, any creative process begins with observation.
Actually the two arts are inseparable, for me at least. One helps the other. Something I can’t express adequately in words; then I try color. Ideas that I can’t compose as pictures I can sometimes express in words.”
Expansive Pathway … Lifetime Traveler is anthology of Gebre Kirstos published in 2016. This anthology of poetry contains around 54 poems, 28 that appeared previously in various local newspapers and 26 unpublished so far. Some of the poems have turned into songs. Hagere “My country” and Ewodeshalehu “ I love you” have turned to great music by reknowned pianist Girma Yifrashiwa and singer Michael Belayneh.
I Love You
Many thousand years
Endless nights
It feels millions to me
My love, the day seemed longer when I loved you
I love you
The skies and the earths
The wideness of the ocean
As much as the distance of the world’s coast
Like rose, like blossom flowers
Like the smell of lemons, like the smell of incense
I love you
Like a bee that spotted a flower
Like a B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-Y roaming through the jungle
Your love, with my love
Let me taste your love……
Gebre Kirstos wasn’t happy of the political situation at the time. After continuing his lecturing postion for four years after the fall of monarchy, Gebre Kirstos fled out the country. He defected in 1978 while he was on an exhibition campaign to Kenya and soon fled to Germany seeking asylum. The German government did not grant his request but in 1980 the United States granted him political asylum and he settled in Lawton, Oklahoma. Life must have been challenging to him. He had one solo
exhibition in Lawton before he died in 1981 at the age of 50. His poems also reveal that he was struggling with the feeling homesickness.
Endegena (Once more)
I was missing people from my country
The browny, the black, the chocolate face
I was missing the curly hair, wavy hair
I was missing language of my country,
the music, the melody
I was missing the traditional clothes
I missed all, each and everyone
The Showa, Wollo, Tigray, Begemider
Gojjam, Wollega, Arusi, Illubabur
Eritrea, Gamo Gofa, Sidama, Kaffa
It was all, It was all I was missing
I have memories, kiss me my relatives,
Invite me friends, shake my hand the shoeshine boy
Ride the carte, show me the neighborhood
My country pretty girl invite me home
I have memories;
My memories were in Addis Ababa
It was on Menagesha, It was on Entoto, It was on Erer
It was on Janmeda, It was on Gefersa, It was on Gulele
Addisu Ketema..
Merkato Dejino the scattered village
Center of the city Dejach Wube village
Churchill road, the railway station
It was Bishoftu, It was Nazerth, It was Modjo,
It was Awash It was Alemaya
It was Hararghe my hometown
Where I left my mother and my father
The Michael back yard, my homeplace
Back to home after all wandering
It was my country I was missing
It is Ethiopia I was missing
If included in curriculum, Gebre Kristos’s art works can play role in inspiring and shaping generation. Children can grow with a distingushed love to one’s country Gebre Kirstos has shown in his poems. They can widen their horizons of imagination and understanding of life looking his unique paintings.
The Ethiopian Herald July 30/2022
