Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian

(Ethiopian, 1937-2003)

Untitled, 1966

Footnotes

One of the continent's most highly regarded Modernist artists, Boghossian won a scholarship from the Ethiopian government in 1955, which allowed him to enrol at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London. In 1957, he moved to Paris to teach at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere. Here he met the Senegalese philosopher, Cheikh Anta Diop, and other exponents of Pan-Africanist thinking.

During these years, Boghossian developed a hybrid aesthetic that synthesised the Modernist experiments of Paul Klee, Max Ernst and Wifredo Lam, with traditional Ethiopian craft techniques.

Boghossian returned to Ethiopia in 1966 to teach at the School of Fine Arts. During his tenure, he encouraged his students to experiment and draw from multiple influences, resulting in an explosion of innovation and creativity.

In 1969, Boghossian moved to the United States to take up a teaching post first at Atlanta University, and then Howard University. Many of his students have become household names in their own right, including Zerihun Yetmgeta and Wosene Kosrof.

Boghossian's status as a Modernist pioneer was reinforced when he became the first contemporary Ethiopian artist to have works purchased by the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris (1963) and the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1965).

The current work, executed in 1966, was created when the artist was teaching in Addis. The confidence and dynamism of the composition reveals a master at the height of his powers.