Skunder Boghossian

Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian (July 22, 1937 – May 4, 2003) was an Ethiopian-Armenian painter and art teacher.

He spent much of his life living and working in the United States.

He was one of the first, and by far the most acclaimed, contemporary Black artists from the African continent to gain international attention.

Boghossian was born on July 22, 1937, in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, a year and a half after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

His mother, Weizero Tsedale Wolde Tekle, was Ethiopian.

His father, Kosrof Gorgorios Boghossian, was a colonel in the Kebur Zabagna (Imperial Bodyguard) and of Armenian descent.

Boghossian also has a sister, Aster Boghossian, and a half brother, Mulugeta Kassa.

Boghossian's father was active in the resistance against the Italian occupation and was imprisoned for seven years when Boghossian was one year old.

His mother had set up a new life apart her children and although both he and his sister Aster (Esther) visited their mother frequently, they were raised in the home of their uncle Kathig Boghassian.

Kathig, who was serving as the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, together with other uncles and aunts brought them up during their father's imprisonment.

He attended a traditional kindergarten where he was taught the Ge'ez script.

In primary and secondary school, he was taught by both Ethiopian and foreign tutors and became fluent in Amharic, Armenian, English, and French.

He studied art informally at the Teferi Mekonnen School.

He also studied under Stanislaw Chojnacki, a historian of Ethiopian art and watercolor painter.

French Canadian philosopher and painter, Jacques Goudbet, also influenced Boghossian, allowing him to create paintings without them feeling forced.

As a teenager, an African American neighbor and family friend, Larry Erskine not only gave him his first feedback on his drawings, but introduced him to jazz through Voice of America, and throughout his life jazz was often playing in the background as he worked on paintings.

He claimed jazz to be "a very heavy movement of the twentieth century. It is not one person; it is not one thought, it is a combination of geniuses... the constant modulation of concepts... it is the one thing we have, black folks, as artists...".

Boghossian met Marily Pryce in Paris, 1964, while she was studying cinematography.

They were married in Tuskegee, Alabama, Pryce's hometown, but the marriage later ended in divorce.

He had two children, Aida Mariam and Edward Addisu, a sister, and four grandchildren.

While he spent some time in Paris, Boghossian talked often about political and cultural influences, citing Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Cheikh Anta Diop and well as creative forces in modern art like Paul Klee.

Less well-known painters like Gerard Sekoto introduced him to the great Cuban surrealist painter, Wifredo Lam.

He also worked closely with a group of West African artists.

The radical politics of Black Power and the Black Arts Movement in the United States can be seen and they seem to have inspired his paintings with coded and overt political themes, such as Black Emblem (1969), The End of the Beginning (1972), and DMZ (1975).

His involvement with the Black Arts Movement impacted his work in more ways than just one.

His earlier paintings depended on the combination of biomorphic forms and minutely detailed abstract notations, he populated the spaces of his new work with bold, polychomatic, geometric, and "African" motifs.

Taking a look at his heritage, Ethiopia has a long tradition of wall painting in churches and of illustrated manuscripts reaching back to the eighth century.

It is from this cultural fountain that once included three-fourths of Ancient Egypt, the builders of the great pyramids and the cradle of civilization, that the artist drew inspiration from.

He also mined his early childhood memories, Coptic markings in Biblical art, illuminated church manuscripts, and ancient scrolls to stamp iconic signatures thick and crusty, flat and smooth, on canvas, hardboard, bark cloth, aluminum or paper.

When considering his art as a whole, he focused on color being used to illuminate, to create superimposed dimensions of form and shape, which in turn enables the viewer to first see the painting as a unit, then as a simultaneous breaking up of images, and finally as a recognition of the identities.

He wanted his viewers to look at his paintings and make up their own interpretations, all the while imagining the figures on the canvas being brought to life rather than just being placed on there.

Boghossian greatly valued the importance of rhythm in his paintings.

Boghossian, like other African American artists at this time, balanced multiple cultural, spiritual, and ancestral identities.

He incorporated many different religious symbols in both his life and in his work ranging from Christian, to African, to Santerian.

He would often start his day sprinkling the house with St. Michael’s holy water, meditate, burn incense, and commune with the “jujus”, asking for forgiveness and blessings.

He once refused to work in a studio while creating his piece for the Ethiopian embassy because an assistant began working before he could communicate with the “jujus.” His use of these faiths was not a religious one, but a secular resepecting of his ancestors, who hailed from both Armenia and Ethiopia.

Using imagery from däbtära magic scrolls, he utilizes a composition he calls “quflfu,” or the “interlocked.” This is a composition of interlacing and interweaving images and textures.

This composition also mirrors Ethiopian craftsmanship like baskets and the cultural dress, the tebab.

Boghossian would also directly use these däbtära scrolls, scraping the original image off to leave only a shadow of what was once on it.

He would then use these remaining impressions to create more vibrant works, repurposing the scrolls.