Peabody Essex Museum – Ethiopia at the Crossroads on View April 13 through July 7

SALEM – The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) invites visitors to explore the vibrant culture and rich artistic legacy of Ethiopia in a new exhibition making its New England debut this spring. Co-organized by PEM, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and the Toledo Museum of Art, Ethiopia at the Crossroads is the first major touring exhibition to examine Ethiopian art in a global context. The exhibition features more than 200 objects made over the span of 2,000 years, including religious icons, illuminated manuscripts, gospel books, coins, metalwork and carvings. Historic art objects are paired with contemporary works — including recent PEM acquisitions — by Ethiopian artists such as Wosene Worke Kosrof, Julie Mehretu, Helina Metaferia, Aïda Muluneh and Elias Sime.

Seated in the Horn of Africa between Europe and the Middle East, Ethiopia is an intersection of diverse cultures, religions and climates. Ethiopia at the Crossroads celebrates the enormous impact this often-overlooked African nation has had on the world by looking at the evolution of the region’s history, creativity and cross-cultural exchange over the centuries. PEM’s African art collection was one of the first of its kind in the U.S. and includes rare and important holdings of Ethiopian icons and processional crosses. The exhibition includes important works from the co-organizing museums and is further strengthened by key loans from American, European and Ethiopian lenders.

“At its core, this exhibition centers the profound foundational role Ethiopia has played in world culture and the humanities,” said Karen Kramer, PEM’s Stuart W. and Elizabeth F. Pratt Curator of Native American and Oceanic Art and Culture. “Arising from a diverse, multiethnic, multifaith society, global intersections influence these artworks. At the same time, we see a distinct aesthetic emerge that belongs to Ethiopia alone. This exhibition provides a window onto a layered and complex region of the world whose rich cultural and artistic traditions have so much to teach us all. What is so exciting to me is not only having these amazing historic works together in one place, but also showing the continuum of Ethiopian artistic achievement through the present.”

In the galleries, visitors will discover a sensory-rich experience featuring the sights, sounds and scents reflecting Ethiopia’s unique context. Although Ethiopia has endured multiple revolutions and upheavals over time, it has the distinction of maintaining its independence as one of the only African nations to resist colonization. Videos in the exhibition feature members of the local Ethiopian diaspora community, which includes an estimated 12,000 people in the Greater Boston area alone.

Religious art underscores how Ethiopia has long been a meeting point of the three major Abrahamic religions. Works on display include objects related to the Queen of Sheba, the Ethiopian Queen whose union with King Solomon of Israel bore a dynastic line of Ethiopian kings lasting two millenia. The exhibition features a gospel book from the early 14th century (making it the oldest Ethiopian manuscript in a North American collection) as well as 15th-century paintings by Italian artists working alongside local artists at the Ethiopian Court. There are also objects by 20th-century artists in Harär, a Holy City of Islam in Eastern Ethiopia renowned for its women makers’ development of distinctive patterned baskets and bowls.

In addition to stunning historical material, Ethiopia at the Crossroads includes several important contemporary artworks, such as mixed media collages by multidisciplinary artist Helina Metaferia that feature women adorned in elaborate headdresses containing messages and symbols of resistance and change. An exciting recent acquisition coincides with this presentation of the exhibition: Six extraordinary photographs by contemporary artist Aïda Muluneh have joined PEM’s collection. The first African woman to serve as commissioned artist for the Nobel Peace Prize and co-curator of the Nobel Peace Prize exhibition, Muluneh creates works that touch upon the richness and complexity of Ethiopian culture.

“In bold, primary colors, Aïda Muluneh’s images revisit women’s roles in Ethiopian traditions and customs. Women painted in stark whites, vibrant reds and azure blues perform a range of tasks: clothing and food preparation as well as cultural and religious practices,” said Lydia Peabody, PEM’s Curator-at-Large and coordinating co-curator of the exhibition at PEM. “These photographs express what it is to be an African woman by encapsulating gender and identity as a celebration of contemporary self-expression. As the first contemporary Ethiopian artist to have her work acquired for PEM’s collection, Muluneh raises awareness of the impact of photography in shaping cultural perceptions.”

Image Credits

Artist in Ethiopia, Sensul (Folding icons) in original embossed leather case (detail), 15th-early 16th century. Parchment, pigments, and leather. Gift of Charles R. and Elizabeth C. Langmuir, 1979. E67892. Peabody Essex Museum. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
Artist in Ethiopia, Folding Processional Icon in the Shape of a Fan (detail), late 15th century. Ink and paint on parchment, thread. Museum purchase with funds provided by the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 1996. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Aïda Muluneh, Addis Neger, from the Mirror of the Soul series, 2019. Inkjet print. Museum purchase by exchange. 2023.33.4. Peabody Essex Museum. Courtesy of the artist. © Aïda Muluneh.