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| Ficre Ghebreyesus, Untitled, circa 2009-2011, oil on canvas, 84 x 72 inches. Image courtesy of Elizabeth Alexander. |
Polychromasia
March
30–April 24, 2013
Opening
Reception: April 5, 2013
50
Orange Street (corner of Orange & Crown)
New
Haven, CT
ArtSpace
is delighted to present Ficre Ghebreyesus: Polychromasia. Opening on March 30,
2013, this retrospective exhibition will celebrate the work and life of the
late Eritrean-born artist. While his paintings and photographs are in many
private collections, this will be the first solo exhibition drawn from his vast
body of work.
Polychromasia,
or multicolored, aptly describes Ghebreyesus’s work, which is bursting at the
seams with chromatic energy, kinetic form, and optical intensity. His
paintings, pastels, and photographs bear witness to multitudinous sites of
inspiration. Of his work, Ghebreyesus wrote:
…When
I paint I am accompanied by dissonances, syncopations, and the ultimate will
for life and moral order of goodness. A
trip to the market guaranteed a dazzling range of traditional crafts
repeated from one generation to the next without ongoing critical intervention
and independent of religious function.
These crafts included a dazzling range of works such as reed baskets
and hand-spun, hand-woven embroidered cotton garments in exquisitely-resolved colors. The caves near my mother’s village are full
of prehistoric rock drawings and paintings. My
eyes took in all of this; my painting allowed me finally to process the
seemingly dissonant visual information.
Ghebreyesus
achieves syncretic brilliance. Framed by Eritrean crafts, textiles and
architecture; the polyglot influence of world literature and philosophies;
BeBop, modern jazz and polyrhythms of the African diaspora; as well as the
masterworks of paintings populating the museums Ghebreyesus frequented, the
works that have been selected for Polychromasia offer a survey of the myriad
styles, mediums and scales that he worked in over his career. A catalog will
feature texts by Anne Higonnet, Key Jo Lee, and Robert F. Thompson, as well as
an introduction by Ghebreyesus’ wife, poet and scholar Elizabeth Alexander. The
exhibition will feature accompanying events in conjunction with scholars and
academic departments from Yale University.
About
the Artist:
Ficre
Ghebreyesus was born in Asmara, Eritrea. He studied painting at the Art
Students’ League and printmaking at the Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop,
both in New York City. He also studied
at Yale University, where he earned his M.F.A. in 2002 and was awarded the
Carol Schlossberg Prize for Excellence in Painting at graduation. Ghebreyesus
made his life in New Haven for almost thirty years, where he lived with his
wife Elizabeth Alexander and their sons Solomon and Simon. From 1992–2008, he was the chef/co-owner of the
immensely popular Caffe Adulis that brought Eritrean cuisine to New Haven and
New York City. He also worked tirelessly
on issues involving Eritrea and its independence.
About
the Exhibition Organizer:
Key
Jo Lee is a fourth year graduate student pursuing a joint degree in the History
of Art and African American Studies. Her dissertation studies materiality and
meaning in nineteenth-century African American photographic portraiture and
includes a foray into contemporary African American artistic practice and
contemporary conservation and restoration practices. She's written several
critical essays for emerging artists, including a long-form exhibition essay
for the artist Felandus Thames for his September 2012 solo exhibition at the
Jenkins Johnson Gallery. Ms. Lee’s other interests include images of and by
African diasporic subjects as well as black visual humor, sartorial choice
(especially the selective gender bending of 1920s and 1930s-era female
performers), and black abstraction. She is a fellow with the Yale Office for
Diversity and Equal Opportunity and a Robert E. Steele intern at the Yale
University Art Gallery.
About
the Events:
April
5, 5:00–7:00 PM: Opening Reception
April
19, 5:00–7:00 PM: An Evening of Music and Poetry, sponsored by the Yale
Department of African
American Studies. Featuring Yusef Komunyankaa, Tracy K. Smith, Kevin Young, and
Aracelis Girmay.
About
the Panel Organizer:
Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher. She has published six
books of poems including American Sublime (2005), which was one of three
finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and was one of the American Library
Association’s “Notable Books of the Year.” Her two collections of essays are
The Black Interior (2004) and Power and Possibility (2007), and her play, Diva
Studies, was produced at the Yale School of Drama. In 2009, she composed and
delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the inauguration of President Barack
Obama. She is the Thomas E. Donnelley
Professor of African American Studies and the chair of the African American
Studies Department at Yale University.
