Galerie Lelong & Co. is pleased to present Ficre Ghebreyesus: Horizons, a selection of intimately scaled and rarely-seen paintings created by the late artist. These paintings present a wide array of imagery that offer a glimpse into how Ghebreyesus built his expansive visual dictionary. Ranging from portraiture, landscape, to abstract color studies, an often-present horizon forms a through line that bridges the artist’s journeys with his masterful use of color.
This presentation commemorates the artist’s inclusion in the 59th Venice Biennale, The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani which closes this month, as well as our recent publication of the catalogue Ficre Ghebreyesus: Gate to the Blue. In those exhibitions, large-scale paintings by the artist were presented that assembled his ruminations on home—from Eritrean textiles and basketry to the rhapsody of blues—including monumental works which Ghebreyesus chose to keep unstretched. The selection of paintings in Horizons highlights the artist’s equally active exploration of a much smaller, meditative scale; many works can be held easily in two hands. Observed by the art historian Anne Higonnet as complete pictorial essays on their own, Ghebreyesus’s keen expression in Horizons coalesces rapturous color and motifs mined from his life’s experiences, each dynamic composition inviting viewers to take a closer look.
In conjunction with this presentation, we are pleased to hold a virtual conversation as part of “Galerie Lelong: Dialogues” between Anne Higonnet and Tausif Noor (the author of the catalogue essay) on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 2:00pm EST (11am PST).