Spanning 1,750 years of Ethiopian history, a new exhibition at the Walters Art Museum explores the interplay of art, culture, and spirituality within Ethiopia and among its neighbors throughout the region.
Aptly named “Ethiopia at the Crossroads,” the show which opened Dec. 3 highlights a nation at the junction of cultures throughout Africa, Western Asia, and Europe. Situated on the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia has connections stretching east through the Arabian Sea and north through the Red Sea, up the Nile River, and over the Mediterranean Sea.
“This exhibition is really putting Ethiopia front and center and thinking about Ethiopia in relationship to its surrounding cultures throughout its history,” said Christine Sciacca, curator of European Art from 300–1400 CE.
Sciacca said she pitched the idea for this show when she interviewed for her job with the Walters seven years ago, coming from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
The Walters has one of the largest collections of Ethiopian art, other than in Ethiopia itself. The DMV area is also home to the largest Ethiopian populations in the United States, Sciacca said, which made this show all the more significant.
Of the more than 220 pieces in the exhibition, about 40% are Walters objects, not only from the museum’s Ethiopian collection but other collections as well. The museum also was loaned pieces from 25 lenders.
Washington, D.C.-based Ethiopian-American artist Tsedaye Makonnen helped contextualize pieces in the exhibition as a guest curator. Sciacca also worked with two advisory committees: a community advisory committee, comprising community members from various backgrounds – including church leaders, teachers, artists and others – who shared the significance of Ethiopian art in their own lives; and an academic advisory committee, whose expert members provided insights into how Ethiopian art influenced and was influenced by other cultures such as art in Armenia and India.
The three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – have deep roots in Ethiopia. In fact, Ethiopia is the second-oldest Christian nation in the world after Armenia. The Walters showcases how these religions have been interconnected throughout the country’s history.
For example, the exhibition features types of woven baskets that historically were crafted by Jewish and Harari Muslim basket-makers. Today, they are primarily made by Ethiopian Christians.
Another section displays ancient coins, which show the shift from a crescent and disc symbol that comes from South Arabia, to a cross after King ‘Ezana, ruler of the Aksumite Empire, converted to Christianity.
“These cultures are living, and religions are living, side by side,” Sciacca said. “So you can definitely see the crossover.”
After King ‘Ezana’s conversion to Christianity, he sought a bishop for his community. He visited the Coptic Egyptian church in Alexandria and asked for a bishop.
“So from the fourth century up until the 1950s, the bishop of Ethiopia came from Alexandria,” Sciacca said. “It was only in the late ’50s, that you get an Ethiopian bishop of Ethiopia.”
Sciacca pointed out an especially exciting find: a piece of bread stamped with a Coptic Egyptian inscription that the Walters acquired in 2018. In a similar way that Eucharistic bread carries the symbol of the cross for modern-day Catholic mass, the Coptic Egyptian inscription on the bread in the Walters exhibition would also be related to a church service, according to Sciacca.
Two of Sciacca’s colleagues visited the collection of the late Richard Ettinghausen, a scholar of Islamic art, in search of pieces the Walters might acquire. That’s where they found the bread.
“I got the phone call: ‘We found Ethiopian bread, Christine!’” she recalled. “It’s actually an Egyptian bread as it turns out, but it was great to show it in this context…. It just is a real symbol of that connection between these two churches. You see lots of visual motifs echoing between the two cultures.”
Interlace, the symbol of the cross, and images of the Virgin and Child are found on book covers and other objects from both Egypt and Ethiopia.
The exhibition is designed to immerse visitors in Ethiopian art and culture, from the walls painted with the red, green, and yellow colors of the nation’s flag, to the temporary addition of architectural details resembling “monkey head” beams that are traditional to the culture. Beyond sight, the exhibition evokes other senses as well, like sound – through ambient music played aloud and audio/video recordings available for listening on iPads with earpieces – and smell – with scratch-and-sniff cards that allow visitors to experience the scents of berbere spice, frankincense, and manuscript.
A glass case features a folding processional icon, comprising six pieces of parchment that have been stitched together and folded accordion-style. The piece depicts saints and other important figures, labeled in the classical Ethiopic language Gǝʿǝz. A photo shows how the icon would be shaped into a circular, fan-like shape to be carried in religious processions.
The exhibition displays historic artifacts alongside more contemporary pieces to demonstrate how Ethiopian culture has both evolved over time and maintained long-held traditions.
A large photograph shows a view inside an Ethiopian home, where dishes and baskets adorn nearly every inch of the walls. Visitors can also view some of the baskets in person at the exhibition, including a type of basket that a new bride would make for her mother-in-law.
“It’s a particular pattern that a daughter-in-law would weave and give as a gift to her new mother-in-law,” Sciacca explained. “And then, if it was accepted and it was thought to be a good basket, the mother-in-law would hang it on her wall, and it would show that her son was married.
Two pieces by Maryland-born artist Helina Metaferia, a professor of fine arts at Brown University, depict women wearing headdresses made out of imagery from the American Civil Rights Movement.
“She was very much thinking of the forms of Gondarine king and queen crowns,” Sciacca said.
On Jan. 28 at the Walters, Metaferia will be on stage with her father, Dr. Getachew Metaferia, a Morgan State University political science professor who was part of Sciacca’s advisory committee. Together, the father and daughter will discuss their connections to Ethiopian history.
A multimedia and video installation titled “Brave New World II” by Ethiopian artist Theo Eshetu presents video clips ranging from church processions to planes taking off from JFK airport.
From regular view, the piece appears to be a painting or video screen mounted on the wall. But it actually comprises a mirrored tunnel, which visitors can stick their heads into, at which point the piece transforms into a globe shape.
“It’s really a great piece to end with and think about Ethiopia’s broader role, but also being part of the globally connected world that we have today – and also, frankly, was true in the Middle Ages,” Sciacca said.
The Walters Art Museum co-organized “Ethiopia at the Crossroads” with the Peabody Essex Museum and the Toledo Museum of Art.
The exhibition will remain open at the Walters through March 3, 2024, after which it will travel to the Peabody Essex Museum from April 13 through July 7, 2024, and to the Toledo Museum of Art from Aug. 17 through Nov. 10, 2024.
