A life in time
The defining moments of a life and a career.
Italian Invasion
Afewerk is three years old when Italian aircraft bomb Addis Ababa. The occupation will last five years and shape his understanding of art as resistance.
Liberation
Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Ethiopia. The sense of pride and renewal in the country following liberation enters Afewerk's early visual imagination.
Departure for Britain
Afewerk leaves Ethiopia for London at fifteen, one of the first Ethiopian students to study art formally in Europe.
Return to Ethiopia
Having completed his studies at the Slade, Afewerk returns to Addis Ababa at twenty-two, with a formed artistic vision and a desire to create a truly Ethiopian modern art.
Italy: Ravenna
A transformative visit to the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna. The formal language of that art — compressed space, gold ground, hieratic figures — enters his vocabulary permanently.
Africa Hall Commission
Afewerk receives the commission to design the stained glass windows for Africa Hall in Addis Ababa. He spends three years in France overseeing their fabrication at Studio Atelier Thomas Vitraux, Valence.
Villa Alpha Begun
Construction begins on Villa Alpha in the Tor-Hailoch neighbourhood of Addis Ababa. The house will take fifteen years to complete — studio, museum, and autobiography.
Fall of Haile Selassie
The Emperor is deposed by the Derg military council. Afewerk, who was a court painter of sorts, navigates the transition with independence and silence.
Last Judgment Unveiled
After four years of work, The Last Judgment — his largest canvas — is shown privately at Villa Alpha. The work is described by witnesses as overwhelming.
Death of Afewerk Tekle
Afewerk Tekle dies on April 10, 2012, at a private hospital in Addis Ababa, at the age of seventy-nine. He is buried at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa.