Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian, (Ethiopian, 1937-2003)
Big Red Scrolls 72 x 42in (182.8 x 106.7cm)
Big Red Scrolls
signed and dated 'SKUNDER 1995' (lower right); signed and inscribed 'SKUNDER Boghossian / 3200 16th NW Wash D.C 20010 / 78-93'
oil on canvas
72 x 42in (182.8 x 106.7cm)
Provenance
The collection of the artist's family.
Big Red Scrolls is an archetypal representation of Skunder's trademark, the Ethiopian magical scrolls, where symbols that express the ambiguities of good and evil appear and dissolve.
The symbols unify pre-Christian indigenous practices with Christian beliefs, and this harmonious and yet ambiguous fusion between animism and divinity, between the pagan and the Christian, is the source of his luminous scrolls. He imaginatively reflects on the illuminations of Ethiopian manuscripts and the astonishing visual unity of the icons and church murals through an overt connection to the spiritual and abstract dimensions of African symbolisms. He brought a new African cultural insight into Ethiopian church art and integrated these two fields of knowledge. Richly textured, it embodies the delicate weaving of lines and the complex interlacing of symbols.
In this image, the defining features of the scrolls are 'dancing.' In other words, the scrolls are in impressions of motion and seeming transition. He had said these 'dancing' scrolls are the jujus that were in perpetual celebration to the glories of the gods. Indeed, the scrolls signify a sense of movement that invites the viewer to participate in the liminal space of joy. His weaving composition or kulflfu (interlocked) is visibly apparent with a delicate relationship to African symbols and iconographies.
We are grateful to Professor Elizabeth Giorgis for her compilation of the above footnote.
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Big Red Scrolls 72 x 42in (182.8 x 106.7cm)
Big Red Scrolls
signed and dated 'SKUNDER 1995' (lower right); signed and inscribed 'SKUNDER Boghossian / 3200 16th NW Wash D.C 20010 / 78-93'
oil on canvas
72 x 42in (182.8 x 106.7cm)
Provenance
The collection of the artist's family.
Big Red Scrolls is an archetypal representation of Skunder's trademark, the Ethiopian magical scrolls, where symbols that express the ambiguities of good and evil appear and dissolve.
The symbols unify pre-Christian indigenous practices with Christian beliefs, and this harmonious and yet ambiguous fusion between animism and divinity, between the pagan and the Christian, is the source of his luminous scrolls. He imaginatively reflects on the illuminations of Ethiopian manuscripts and the astonishing visual unity of the icons and church murals through an overt connection to the spiritual and abstract dimensions of African symbolisms. He brought a new African cultural insight into Ethiopian church art and integrated these two fields of knowledge. Richly textured, it embodies the delicate weaving of lines and the complex interlacing of symbols.
In this image, the defining features of the scrolls are 'dancing.' In other words, the scrolls are in impressions of motion and seeming transition. He had said these 'dancing' scrolls are the jujus that were in perpetual celebration to the glories of the gods. Indeed, the scrolls signify a sense of movement that invites the viewer to participate in the liminal space of joy. His weaving composition or kulflfu (interlocked) is visibly apparent with a delicate relationship to African symbols and iconographies.
We are grateful to Professor Elizabeth Giorgis for her compilation of the above footnote.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
