Därtähal - 1995

105.2 x 147.3 cm
Ballpoint pen, led pencil, graphite and ink on paper

L’Amour (Love) - 1987

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

La Lumière - 1987

108 x 75.2 cm
Ballpoint pen, led pencil, graphite and ink on paper

La Richesse (Wealth) - 1987

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

Popularité (Popularity) - 1987

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

Talisman - 1987

54.2 x 75 cm
Ballpoint pen, led pencil, graphite and ink on paper

Untitled - 1990

110 x 55 cm
Colored pencil

Untitled - 1987

29.8 x 41.9 cm
Ink on paper

Untitled - 1988

54 x 75.6 cm
Ink on paper

Untitled 4 - 1987

36.8 x 54.6 cm
Ink on paper

Gedewon

Born 1939, Bagemdir, Ethiopia

Died 1995, Därtähal, Ethiopia

Far from being an artist seeking his roots, Gedewon was one of the finest practitioners of poetry and rhetoric in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Along with his religious studies, he was secretly initiated into talismanic art, a discipline used for prayer and healing. Reaching back as far as the origins of Christianity in Ethiopia (i.e., to the fourth century), talismanic art draws on the same Hellenic sources as Arab alchemy and the Hebrew Kabala. But while the art remained embryonic in the Mediterranean world, it flourished in Ethiopia as a means to cure patients whose ills were understood in terms of spiritual possession. For Gedewon, talismans were a writing from before writing; they were at once equally figure and text.

Gedewon called his works “talismans of research and study.” The purpose of his art was to heal body and soul through ancient patterns, imagery, and invocation. While employing established models, Gedewon also considered it necessary to question the patient in order to incorporate specific experiences and visions into the talisman. In turn, he would create new images for new problems. His works, executed in pencil, ballpoint pen, or ink on paper, are primarily graphic and within their geometric framework, highly representational. In these “talismans of research and study,” Gedewon is both the healer—and because of his empathy—the patient, artist and hallucinator in another’s stead.

With contributions from Jacques Mercier

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012/2014

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gallery 351- Ethiopia

2011

VENICE BIENNALE: 54th International Art Exhibition, Italian Pavillion

2009 - 2010

Nov. 2009 - Jan. 2010

Africa? Una nuova storia

Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, Italy

2005

Arts of Africa

Grimaldi Forum

Monaco - France

2005

African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection

Museum of Fine Art Houston

Houston - USA

2003 – 2004

Vernacular Visionaries: International Outsider Art in Context

Museum of International Folk Art

Santa Fe, New Mexico – USA

2002

Art that Heals

Apex Art

New York Etats Unis.

2001

Dessins Choisis

Forum Culturel de Blanc-Mesnil

Le Blanc-Mesnil, France

2001

Working in the Spirit : Gedewon and Vyakul

Cavin-Morris Gallery.

New York, Etats Unis.

2000 – 2001

Dessins Choisis

Alliance éthio-française

Addis Adeba, Ethiopie

2000

Partage d’Exotismes

La Halle Tony Garnier

Lyon, France.

1998

Africa, Africa -A vibrant Art from a Dynamic Continent

Tobu Museum of Art.

Tokyo, Japan.

1997

Schloss Halbturn.

Austria.

1997

Die Anderen Modernen

Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt.

Berlin, Germany.

1997

Art that Heals

Museum for African Art.

New-york, USA.

1997

Lumière Noire

Tanlay Art Center.

Tanlay, France.

1996

Universalis

Sao Paulo 23rd Biennal.

1995

Krank : Warum ?

Deutschen Higiene Museum.

Dresden, Germany.

1992

Le Roi Salomon et les Maîtres du Regard

Oceanian and African Art National Museum

Paris, France.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2005

African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell.

2004

Vernacular Visionaries: International Outsider Art in Context.

Edited by Annie Carlano, published by Yale University Press.

1998

Africa-Africa, A Vibrant Art from a Dynamic Continent

Tobu Museum of Art. Gedewon p.54-59.

Bilingual text : Japanese and english.

Tokyo, Japan.

1997

Anderren

Zeitgenössische Kunst Aus Afrika Asien und Lateinamerika.

Edition : Braus. Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt.

Gedewon p.68-69.

1996

Contemporary Art of Africa.

Gedewon by Jacques Mercier, p.58-59 text in English.

Edited by André Magnin & Jacques Soulillou.

Publisher Harry N. Abraams, New-York.

1996

Universalis

Sao Paulo 23rd Biennal.

Exhibition catalogue

Gedewon p.112-117 by Jacques Mercier.

Bilingual text : Portuguese, English.