Adamu Tesfaw (born 1933), also called Qes Adamu Tesfaw
["Qes" is an honorific for priests in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition.] is an Ethiopian artist.
Tesfaw was born in 1933,
and raised in
Bichena
Bichena ( Amharic: ብቸና) is a town in west-central Ethiopia. Located in the Misraq Gojjam Zone of the Amhara Region on the hillside overlooking the Abay River, it has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2541 meters above sea level ...
in
Gojjam
Gojjam ( ''gōjjām'', originally ጐዛም ''gʷazzam'', later ጐዣም ''gʷažžām'', ጎዣም ''gōžžām'') is a historical province in northwestern Ethiopia, with its capital city at Debre Marqos.
Gojjam's earliest western boundary ex ...
province. He was educated as a priest in the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church. In the late 1950s, Tesfaw moved to
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
to pursue painting as a career, ultimately leaving the priesthood. There he had the help of his godfather Yohannes Tessema, a successful commercial artist. He sold paintings through his godfather, and later through several souvenir shops in Addis Ababa.
Tesfaw produces large paintings on cloth of scenes of Ethiopian culture and history, and also religious art in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition.
His work has been featured in a number of showings of Ethiopian art overseas, and the
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
Fowler Museum of Cultural History organized a touring exhibition of his work in 2004, which continued touring until at least November 2007. In 2004 he also appeared on the popular
Ethiopian Television
The Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), now rebranded as ETV (stylized in all lowercase), is an Ethiopian government-owned public service broadcaster. It is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is the country's oldest and largest br ...
program "
Meto Haya".
Further reading
*''Painting Ethiopia: The Life And Work Of Qes Adamu Tesfaw'', University of California Los Angeles, Fowler (June 2005)
Notes
References
External links
Adamu's Autobiography
1933 births
Living people
Ethiopian painters
{{Ethiopia-bio-stub