Afewerk Tekle
1932–2012 · Ethiopian painter and stained-glass artist known for African and Christian themes
Afewerk Tekle (Ankober, 1932 – Addis Ababa, 2012) was an Ethiopian painter best known for his works on African and Christian themes and for his stained glass. His career places Ethiopian art in dialogue with modern European and African painting.
He went to England to study mining engineering, but ended up training as an artist at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Slade School of Art. After his first one-man show in Addis Ababa in 1954, he spent two years in Europe learning to design stained glass and studied Ethiopian illuminated manuscripts in European libraries.
His murals and mosaics decorated St George's Cathedral in Addis Ababa, and in 1958 he designed Total Liberation of Africa, a stained-glass work in the Africa Hall of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. In the 1960s his painting grew more political, tied to African independence, and in 1964 he became the first laureate of the Haile Selassie I Prize for Fine Arts.
In 1981 his self-portrait entered the permanent collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the first work by an African artist to do so. His legacy lies in bringing Ethiopian painting into international circles without giving up its own themes.