Wosene kosrof biography of abraham lincoln
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This recognizable ‘signature’ emerges from the way he elongates, distorts, dissects and reassembles Amharic symbols – not as literal words – but as images that speak for themselves in a visual language accessible to international audiences. His work has been reviewed by The New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Winston-Salem Journal and the Philadelphia Tribune.
Wosene Worke Kosrof : Painter/Sculptor
Biographical Sketch
Born in 1950 in the Arat Kilo district of Addis Ababa, Wosene Worke Kosrof is a contemporary artist who has achieved international acclaim.
Jazz improvisations underlie his compositions, animating them with rhythmic movements and emboldening his masterful use of color.
The very nature of Wosene’s work – his visual vocabulary, his ‘mapping’ of cultures across time and place, his sensual use of form and color – testifies to the visual power and versatility of language. “I create a visible, interactive surface – like visual icons that are accessible to everyone.
My paintings invite viewers to dialogue with them, to take them into their memory.” A major aspect of Wosene’s works is that they present us with a challenge to look into the art, feel its effect, and to watch what happens. My paintings invite viewers to dialogue with them, to take them into their memory.
WOSENE WORKE KOSROF has created an internationally recognized artistic signature in his work by being the first contemporary Ethiopian-born artist to use the script forms – fiedel – of his native Amharic as a core element in his paintings.
This recognizable ‘signature’ emerges from the way he elongates, distorts, dissects and reassembles Amharic calligraphy – not as literal words – but as images that speak for themselves in a visual language accessible to international audiences. He paints from a place between mastery and uncertainty – and so the viewer too can approach his work to discover meanings that emerge through interaction.
Wosene lives and has his studio in the Berkeley, California.
Artist Statement
I am the first Ethiopian-born painter to transform Amharic script into contemporary abstract art, and these script-images have now become recognized internationally as my ‘artistic signature.’ Amharic, derived from the ancient language Ge’ez and a major modern language of Ethiopia, is one of the few written systems indigenous to Africa.
Like jazz music, the script provides a repertoire of dense, yet supple, elements that lend themselves well to visual improvisation. Formally trained at the Addis Ababa School of Fine Art, he completed a BFA with distinction in 1972. He paints from a place between mastery and uncertainty – and so the viewer too can approach his work to discover meanings that emerge through interaction.
Wosene has produced five major series of paintings in which he defined an ‘aesthetics of script’: Graffiti Magic (1980-1987); Africa: The New Alphabet (1988-1994); Color of Words (1995-2003); Words: From Spoken to Seen (2004-2008); and, his current series WordPlay (2009-present).
Wosene lives and has his studio in Berkeley, California.
EDUCATION
School of Fine Art, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
MFA Howard University, Washington, D.C.
COLLECTIONS
National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles, CA (Blue Moon Goddess, 1991)
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC (Preacher, 2000)
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN (Untitled, 1990)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Baltimore Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
The Walters Museum, Baltimore, MD
The Kennedy Museum, Athens, OH
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
Mott Warsh Collection, Flint, MI
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL (Words of Judgement II, 2005)
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
The Stanley Museum, Iowa City, IA
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh-Durham, NC (Caribbean Days, 2005)
Samuel P.
Harn Museum, University of FL, Gainesville (Scrolls of the Ancestor #IV, 1994)
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana
Fleming Museum, Burlington, VTFleming Museum, Burlington, VT
The Davis Museum,Wellesley, MA
Völkerkunde Museum, Zürich, Switzerland
Peter Gray Museum, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
United Nations, New York, NY
Rockefeller Collection, New York, NY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Interview with Sotheby's
African Art in London
The Pleasures and Dangers of Learning to See by Wosene Kosrof
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 WOSENE WORKE KOSROF: Labyrinth of Words, Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, CA
2022 WOSENE WORKE KOSROF: Beyond Words, Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, CA
2020 WOSENE WORKE KOSROF: For Love of Words, Sullivan Goss, Satna Barbara, CA
The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
Keith Haring Museum of Japan, Kobuchizawa, Japan
National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT
Folkens Museum Etnografiska, Stockholm, Sweden
Paul Mahder Gallery, Healdsburg, CA
Skoto Gallery, New York, NY
Gallery of African Art, London, UK
Hoshigaoka Gallery, Kochi, Japan
St.
George Gallery, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Loft Galeria, Puerto Vallarta, MX
Parish Gallery, Washington, DC
STUDIO ARTS EXPERIENCE
1972 – present Professional studio artist: painting and sculpture
2000 – 2001 Artist-in-residence, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar, VA
1996 Artist-in-residence, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy
1984 Artist-in-residence, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar, VA
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC
The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Samuel P.
Harn Museum, University of FL, Gainesville
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana
Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT
U.S. His work can also be found in many international private collections. Jazz improvisations underlie his compositions, animating them with rhythmic movements and emboldening his masterful use of color.
The very nature of Wosene’s work – his visual vocabulary, his ‘mapping’ of cultures across time and place, his sensual use of form and color – testifies to the visual power and versatility of language. “I create a visible, interactive surface – like visual icons that are accessible to everyone.
Though Ethiopia has centuries-old traditions of two-dimensional art that include script, such as Coptic icon paintings underscored by written narratives, the script symbols themselves were never developed as a fine art form.
During the past thirty-five years, I’ve produced five major series of paintings in which I have defined an ‘aesthetics of script’: Graffiti Magic (1980-1987); Africa: The New Alphabet (1988-1994); Color of Words (1995-2003); Words: From Spoken to Seen (2004-2008); and, in my current series WordPlay (2009-present), painting has become an intense process of ‘dialoguing’ with the script images, exploring the versatility and playfulness of their surfaces and interiors, dissecting their ‘skeletal’ structures, observing the ways they move, interact, and intersect.
Formally trained at the Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts, he completed a BFA with distinction in 1972. He paints from a place between accident and intention, curiosity and discovery, mastery and uncertainty – and so the viewer too can approach his work to discover meanings that emerge through their interaction.
While attending Howard University, he was surprised that his art history professor was lecturing about his paintings as examples of the new contemporary art coming out of Africa.
I elongate, distort, invert, dissect, and recombine their shapes and volumes, and turn them inside out to discover their moods, tempers, and personalities. Then, as a Ford Foundation Talent Scholar, he was awarded an MFA in 1980 from Howard University in Washington, DC.
Over the past four decades, Wosene has created an internationally recognized artistic signature though the expressive use of his native Amharic script as a core motif in his paintings and sculptures.
Quick-drying acrylics allow me to easily build and destroy colors and figures on canvas. My paintings invite viewers to dialogue with them, to take them into their memory.” A major aspect of Wosene’s works is that they present us with a challenge to look into the art, feel its effect, and to watch what happens. I use a wide-ranging palette, from bold primary colors to muted tones that look almost repellent on my palette, but that smoothly integrate into a composition; to black and white paintings with bare touches of color; to works in several tones of a single color.
Since my student years at the School of Fine Art in Addis Ababa (1967-1972), American jazz has asserted a significant influence on my painting.
EDUCATION
1980 MFA, painting and drawing, Howard University, Washington, DC;
Ford Foundation Talent Scholar
1972 BFA, painting, drawing, design, School of Fine Arts, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.