On the walls of the Sankara Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, is an extensive collection of contemporary East African art. Some are the vivid works of Ethiopian-born, Nairobi-based Fitsum Berhe Woldelibanos. He signs his paintings simply as Fitsum.
On
his website, Fitsum says that although he had been interested in art from an
early age, he undertook it seriously after graduating from the Asmara School of
Arts in 2000, where he was enrolled in painting, sculpting, and print making.
His
works are mainly portraits – of men and women – with influences based on
“architecture and fabric patterns.” Another strong element, he says, is water –
the constant motion of the sea, its cycles, and as “our horizontal point of
reference.” For example, his strong use of colour stems from inspirations from
nature, such as yellows from the Sahara desert: “color talks to me in three
dimensional forms.”
It’s
not merely the strength of colour that attracts the viewer’s eye to the
intensity of his paintings, but it’s also the complementarity and contrast of
tones to contour the face that prolongs the gaze. It’s the width and length of
line, and the sharp angles that defines the span of the nose, the power of the
chin, and the hollows of the cheeks. The brush strokes are amazingly forceful
and passionate, extreme and severe, yet also penetrating enough to convey
emotion in his portraitures. This emotion is further enhanced in the depth and
proportions of the eyes, and the fullness and moistness of the lips. Another
aspect that I like is the musculature and erectness of the head, or the tilt
downwards or sideways of the face, or the glance of the eyes. But I always
return to the colours.
http://fitsumberhe.com
http://fitsumberhe.com
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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