Goshu, Worku - VM - Gerlind Krause

Worku Goshu: Universe 1 and Universe 2 

Universe 1 

I worship your presence

I adore your holy pre-science.

You envisioned your works

from time out of mind

called the planets to be

by the infinity of your wisdom.

And your creation

was like a wheel

moving perpetually

towards the score of a world

without end.

Universe 2 

Love 

sweeps every realm

comes up from down under

swells far beyond the stars.

Love abundantly

and in completion

enfolds us, cherished children of God.

Love

is the kiss of salvation

by the Holy of Holiest

on our hearts. 

The poems are by Gerlind Krause

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The Light and the Dark 

by Gerlind Krause 

Worku has come a long way. An Ethiopian, born between Orient and Occident by his religious traditions, he passionately sought to unearth his country's roots and wounds that were his own. In his early work he expressed himself through eyes. Eyes cried out the feelings of both the masses and individuals. Covered with a surface of faces, the very structure of the canvasses seemed to be made of eyes woven into the sun and the moon, the old motifs of Sheba and Axumite times which can be found in wall paintings in the rock churches in Lalibela and many Lasta churches in Ethiopia. 

Worku applies archetypical motifs of pre-Christian history as well as old Orthodox traditions. He is a modern artist who explores spiritual revelations that in the old times were under the custodianship of ecclesiastical professionals, bound to the institutions of the church. Traditional Ethiopian painting never strived towards describing the country's life or folk traditions in a realistic or naturalistic manner, but sought to portray the nation's spirit in many-layered religious symbols and impulses from traditional legends dealing with good and evil. 

Today Worku expresses his interpretation of life by visions that emerge from the impact of good and evil powers on the human heart and on society. These visions soar with the light of hope led by a strong longing that one day the creation of a new heaven and a new earth may put an end to the tears and pain and struggles of humanity. His eyes are still present, sweeping the paintings in more refined ways and abstract forms to show the network of humankind and its connection to the Lord of heaven and earth. 

******* 

Worku Goshu: Universe 1, 60 x 60 cm. 

Worku Goshu: Universe 2, 60 x 60 cm.  

Worku Goshu, a prominent Ethiopian contemporary artist, was born in 1942 inAmbo, Ethiopia, into the family of a judge. His grandfather was a man experienced in the art of calligraphy of religious books. Worku joined the School of Fine Arts in Addis Ababa from which he graduated in 1963. That same year he left Ethiopia for Poland and spent 6 years there, studying art in Krakow, particularly focusing on Pure and Applied Graphic Art. His work for his MFA is a beautifully illustrated story of the Queen of Sheba. In Krakow, at the Academy of Fine Arts, he met his wife Barbara, a Polish artist who developed a great love for Ethiopian traditions in her iconographic spiritual art of wood and stone. After graduating from Krakow Academy of Fine Arts in 1969 Worku and Barbara returned to Ethiopia and started a joint career in their own fields of talent, producing work which has been displayed in numerous national and international exhibitions. Worku also taught at the School of Art and Design of Addis Ababa University as a professor in the Department of Painting for more than 27 years. Presently Worku paints and runs the Goshu Gallery in Addis Ababa with his wife Barbara, see www.goshugalleries.com/index.php. 

Gerlind Krause is a German freelance author, translator and pastor's wife, who came to live and work in the GermanChurch in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with her husband from 2000 to 2006. She fell in love with the country's old Christian culture and its contemporary Christians, its patient people and suffering poor. She was captivated by the surprising explosion of art and music deriving from Ethiopia’s ancient roots, along with its deep reflections and visions for the society's remedy in the future.

ArtWay Visual Meditation October 6, 2013