In locating her arguments at the intersection of visual culture and literary and performance studies, Giorgis details how innovations in visual art intersected with shifts in narratives of modernity. The result is a bold intellectual, cultural, and political history of Ethiopia, with art as its centerpiece.

If modernism initially came to Africa through colonial contact, what does Ethiopia’s inimitable historical condition—its independence save for five years under Italian occupation—mean for its own modernist tradition? In Modernist Art in Ethiopia—the first book-length study of the topic—Elizabeth W. Giorgis recognizes that her home country’s supposed singularity, particularly as it pertains to its history from 1900 to the present, cannot be conceived outside the broader colonial legacy. She uses the evolution of modernist art in Ethiopia to open up the intellectual, cultural, and political histories of it in a pan-African context.
Giorgis explores the varied precedents of the country’s political and intellectual history to understand the ways in which the import and range of visual narratives were mediated across different moments, and to reveal the conditions that account for the extraordinary dynamism of the visual arts in Ethiopia. In locating its arguments at the intersection of visual culture and literary and performance studies, Modernist Art in Ethiopia details how innovations in visual art intersected with shifts in philosophical and ideological narratives of modernity. The result is profoundly innovative work—a bold intellectual, cultural, and political history of Ethiopia, with art as its centerpiece.

"“For scholars and students of Ethiopian and African studies, as well as those situated in the emergent field of comparative or alternative modernities, this book makes a landmark contribution. Indeed, Modernist Art in Ethiopia opens up an uncharted scholarly terrain and we ought to welcome it as an important harbinger of a new, critically minded study of Ethiopia.”" - Northeast African Studies

"“[This] volume places Ethiopia in a rich pan-African context by evoking how the arts, both visual and literary, can elucidate one country’s intellectual, political, and social history.”" - African Studies Review

"“A compelling and substantial vision of modernist Ethiopian art not as a single homogenous instantiation, but rather as a series of fascinating twists and turns from different perspectives within a variety of contexts. Overall, this dense analysis of intellectual thought as it relates to Ethiopian modernism stands out as an intellectual artistic contribution in its own right.”" - International Journal of African Historical Studies

"“Giorgis succeeds in giving a sense of the tumultuous reality in which these artists worked. Modernist Art in Ethiopia is a valuable scholarly introduction to 20th-century Ethiopian art history.”" - CHOICE

"“Modernist Art in Ethiopia is a necessary addition for libraries that hold collections in Non-Western art, postcolonial studies, or modern art…. While parts of the book are complex/theoretical, it also presents a linear historical account of modernist art in Ethiopia which can serve as an introductory text or starting point for further research.”" - ARLIS/NA (Art Libraries Society of North America)

"“A landmark study on Ethiopian modernism and experiences of modernity beyond the West. (Modernist Art in Ethiopia)presents a vital and under-documented history of the experience of modernity and the artistic movements surrounding Modernism, coming from a unique place that will appeal to a wide-ranging readership and is likely to become an important and treasured text.”" - Africa at LSE blog (London School of Economics)

"“With Modernist Art in Ethiopia, Elizabeth Wolde Giorgis writes a powerful indictment of Ethiopian exceptionalism…. Against the established, formalistic way of looking at Ethiopian artworks, Giorgis looks at visual arts and artists in the broader context of intellectual history. Hence, her five chapters contain rich analyses of novels, poetry, newspapers, and advertising, as well as an account of the relationship between artists, writers, and cultural institutions.”" - Journal of Modern African Studies

"“[A]n important contribution to transnational-global discussions about coloniality, decoloniality, modernity, global capital, and the political and cultural ramifications of these discourses and practices. Modernist Art in Ethiopia is as much a book on Ethiopia as it is about the world, its exclusionary configurations, and their differentiating implications. This makes this well-written and illustrated book an essential text.”" - Journal of African History

"“This is an indispensable text for anyone interested in the Ethiopian modern art.”" - Ethiopia Observer