Gebre Kristos Desta

Gebre Kristos Desta ( 1932–1981) (also Gebrekristos Desta) was an Ethiopian modern artist.[1][2] He was also known as a poet and an art teacher.[3]

Early life

Desta was born in the town of Harrar, the son of a clergyman, Aleka Desta Nego. As a boy he played soccer and volleyball. Gebre Kristos also spent a lot of time copying and illustrating religious manuscripts while assisting his father as an apprentice. His early influence and introduction to art was the traditional religious art of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.[4]

He attended Haile Sellassie School, and graduated from General Wingate High School. In college Desta studied agriculture, but left school to become an artist.[5]

Career

Desta worked as an independent artist in Addis Ababa, creating paintings representing poverty-stricken people in that city. In 1957 he earned a scholarship, and studied art at Werschule fur Bildende Kunste und Gestaltung in Cologne, West Germany. After graduation he continued painting in Ethiopia, and held his first solo exhibition at the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa.

Desta later joined the faculty of the Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts.[3] His art was displayed in many further exhibitions, both in Ethiopoia and abroad.[6]

Reception

Desta was criticized for including European techniques in his artwork, rather than staying with traditional local methods.[5]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/ModernAfricanArt/monographs_detail.cfm?artist=Gebre%20Kristos%20Desta,%201932-1981 Smithsonian Libraries
  2. ↑ http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195382075.001.0001/acref-9780195382075-e-0722 Oxford Reference
  3. 1 2 Bahru Zewde (2014). The Quest for Socialist Utopia: The Ethiopian Student Movement, C. 1960-1974. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. pp. 50–. ISBN 978-1-84701-085-8.
  4. ↑ Dictionary of African Biography, vol 1-6, by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&dq=anthology+of+gebre+kristos+desta&source=gbs_navlinks_s
  5. 1 2 Paulos Milkias (18 May 2011). Ethiopia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 327–. ISBN 978-1-59884-258-6.
  6. ↑ "Gebre Kristos Desta, the artist", Ethiopia Observer 14. 1971. pp. 10, 18, 25.


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