When he was alive, Ficre Ghebreyesus was best known as the chef and co-owner of the Caffe Adulis in New Havena restaurant inspired by the cuisine of Eritrea, his native country in East Africa.
But he was also an almost secret painter. Today, 10 years after his death and barely two years after his first exhibition in New York, the painter Ghebreyesus has taken to the most famous stage in the art world: the Venice Biennale.
He has five paintings in the exhibition which runs until September 25. The largest, “City with a River Running Through”, is nearly 20 feet wide. Described in the Biennale catalog as “a patchwork of orange and peach colors,” it appears abstract, but in fact borrows patterns from Eritrean basketry and embroidery.
“Nude with bottle tree” by Ficre Ghebreyesus, circa 2011.
Acrylic on canvas 72 x 84 in (182.9 x 213.4 cm). The piece is exhibited at the Venice Biennale.
Another painting, “Naked at the bottle treeis small in comparison, only six feet high and seven feet wide, but it is more figurative. A nude figure, possibly the artist himself, is seen from behind, his gaze distracted by a strange figure, part warrior and part jester, mounted on an ornate donkey. The horseman and the donkey are figures of West African folklore.
Both paintings are dated 2011, the year before he died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 50. At the time, he was married to Elizabeth Alexander, a Yale professor, writer, and poet, who would later write an acclaimed memoir, “The light of the worldwhich is dedicated to him.
The most iconic artist discovered after death is, of course, Vincent van Gogh, but Ghebreyesus was different. He did not suffer from a lack of recognition like van Gogh. He avoided it. Although he took painting seriously, earning an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2002, he hardly ever exhibited his paintings during his lifetime. Yet he amassed more than 800, many of them influenced by his youth in Eritrea, then engaged in a long war of independence from Ethiopia.
His first local posthumous exhibition took place at Artspace in New Haven in 2013. The whole world would come to know Ghebreyesus as an artist in 2015 when Alexander published “The Light of the World”.
Elizabeth Alexander and Ficre Ghebreyesus.
Courtesy of Elizabeth AlexanderHowever the book was read then, it now contains passages of poignant new intensity. Alexander wrote when she and Ghebreyesus met in 1996, “the first thing he wanted to do was show me his art.” Later she writes that Ghebreyesus was shy about his work, only wanting to show it in his studio, despite the insistence of many champions to exhibit.
“People will know about this work after I’m gone sweetie,” she wrote that he would tell her. “He said it with a laugh, but he meant it.”
Ghebreyesus became a refugee at 16, crossing several countries before arriving in New Haven and opening Caffe Adulis with two brothers. In an artist statement submitted with his art school application, he spoke of the saints and angels he saw in the Coptic churches of Eritrea, his ancient crafts and rock drawings as well as the “vision of hell incarnate” of his war with Ethiopia. In the last paragraph, listing his dreams for the future, he writes: “On the one hand, I want to be a very good painter.
“Fish” by Ficre Ghebreyesus, circa 2008-11. Acrylic on canvas 72 x 84 inches (182.9 x 213.4 cm).
© The Estate of Ficre Ghebreyesus Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., New YorkGhebreyesus made his New York debut in a pair of 2020 exhibitions curated by Galerie Lelong & Co., which had come to represent his artistic field. (Another artist on its all-star list is Yoko Ono.) The gallery coordinated the loan of its five Biennale paintings from private lenders and the artist’s estate.
Lindsay Danckwerth, the gallery’s special projects director who worked on the exhibits, said Ghebreyesus’ enormous “City” painting borrows from quilt-like maps he made before applying to art school. art.
“Time doesn’t seem linear,” Danckwerth said, describing her work. “It’s as if he was drawing from his memory, from his dreams. It draws from lived experience. It’s almost as if time is suspended.
Coincidentally, the Biennale’s theme is “The Milk of Dreams”, borrowed from a book by early surrealist painter Leonora Carrington. Works by women and surrealism dominate the central exhibition of more than 200 individual artists. In a review essay, the Biennale’s chief curator wrote that “the rediscovery of the myth-making potential of art can be seen” in Ghebreyesus’ large-scale paintings.
Danckwerth was part of the local contingent that traveled to Venice for the official opening on April 23. She said Alexander and his two sons with Ghebreyesus also made the trip.
At the time, Alexander, who today is also chairman of the Mellon Foundation, was in the middle of a promotional tour for his latest book, “The Trayvon Generation.” In “The Light of the World”, she recounts how her husband had waited for her the day before his death.
“He loved home above all else,” she wrote. “The best and the worst in the world were all in his head. He put it on canvas and gave it to us.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to clarify how long ago Ghebreyesus died and that his 2013 exhibition was posthumous.
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