Object Details
- Label Text
- In 1980, Boghossian began to play with the compositions, iconographies and colorings of Ethiopian talismanic parchment scrolls. Skunder creates a new pictorial order for these forms and endows the otherwise static scrolls with energy. His choice of color enlivens them, highlighting the intricacy and patterning of details. The results are strikingly different in palette and composition from earlier paintings on goatskins that often included mystical, Coptic and traditional Ethiopian imagery, Ge'ez and Amharic scripts, and bright, rich colors of reds, oranges and golds.
- Description
- Painting on a horizontal rectangular canvas, using acrylic paint and depicting eleven bright multicolored strips hanging from two orange rods against a white background covered with grey-green twisting forms.
- Provenance
- Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian, Washington, D.C., 1983-84 to 1991
- Exhibition History
- Healing Arts, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 2016 - June 26, 2019
- Encounters with the Contemporary, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 7, 2001-January 6, 2002
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian, 1937-2003, born Ethiopia
- Date
- 1983-1984
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase
- Medium
- Acrylic on canvas
- Dimensions
- H x W: 128 x 182.2 cm (50 3/8 x 71 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
