Perhaps one could say that everything about Skunder’s life—the sizzling of his ideas or the over intensity of his artistic talent—is surreal and at times hard to imagine. I remember the evening in September 1996, when I was first introduced to him. I had expressed my intent to write an article on him when he told me to come back to his studio/workspace in Washington, DC, the following day. We met the following day with all intentions on my part to talk about his work. Instead, he gave me a bulk of videos, tapes, and books of Ethiopian history, of African American comedians of the 1970s, and of speeches of civil rights activists that I thought at first were totally inappropriate. He engaged me in unfamiliar, peculiar, and riddled conversations such as the Chalcedonian and Monophysite doctrine of the Orthodox Church. This doctrine, I later learnt, was a debate between two ideologies on questions of whether Christ’s nature remains altogether divine and not human even though he has taken on an earthly and human body with its cycle of birth, life, and death. Of course, I was puzzled by all these overtures at first, but then I realized that it was as if he wanted me to see the metaphor of his work, and rightly so, as the paintings of Skunder Boghossian are deeply expressive in a spiritual way where art is more than a language spoken. It is metaphysics, a critical study, or yet again a systematic view of Skunder’s own natural environment. The Chalcedonian and Monophysite discussion was to show me the interconnectedness of cultures as Monophysites, I found out, were the ones that trekked down from the Near and Middle East to the region of what is now called Ethiopia. And through my friendship with Skunder that began in September 1996, and lasted until his death in 2003, I found his artistic brilliance and passionate overtures connote a certain reality but always within a universal concept of ingrained myths, symbols, and allegories unique to people of color. Skunder was born in Addis Ababa in 1937, to an influential father of Armenian descent and an Ethiopian mother. His training in art informally began at the then Teferi Mekonnen School. It was while he was a student at Teferi Mekonnen that he also met Larry Erskine, an African American neighbor who introduced him to the Voice of America jazz program that used to be relayed to Addis Ababa from Tangier. And ever since then, music, and particularly jazz, has molded and formed the colors and shapes of his canvas. In 1955, at the age of seventeen, Skunder won second prize in abstract art at the National Art Exhibition held for the Jubilee Anniversary Celebration of Emperor Haile Selassie. Following this success, he was awarded a scholarship to study abroad. He studied at the St. Martin’s School of Art and

中文翻译：

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Skunder Boghossian：人与艺术家简介

也许有人可以说，关于斯坎德生活的一切——他的想法的炽热或他的艺术天赋的过度紧张——都是超现实的，有时难以想象。我记得 1996 年 9 月的那个晚上，我第一次被介绍给他。当他让我第二天回到他在华盛顿特区的工作室/工作区时，我表达了我要写一篇关于他的文章的意图。第二天我们会面，我全心全意地谈论他的工作。相反，他给了我大量关于埃塞俄比亚历史、1970 年代非裔美国喜剧演员以及民权活动家的演讲的视频、录音带和书籍，我起初认为这些都是完全不合适的。他与我进行了一些陌生的、奇特的、千奇百怪的对话，例如东正教的迦克顿教义和一神论教义。这个教义，我后来才知道，是两种意识形态之间的辩论，关于基督的本性是否仍然完全是神圣的而不是人性的，即使他已经采取了地球和人类的身体，并具有出生、生命和死亡的循环。当然，一开始我对所有这些提议感到困惑，但后来我意识到他好像想让我看到他作品的隐喻，这是正确的，因为斯坎德·博戈斯安的画作具有深刻的精神表现力艺术不仅仅是一种语言。它是形而上学，一项批判性研究，或者再次是对斯坎德自身自然环境的系统观点。Chalcedonian 和 Monophysite 的讨论是为了向我展示文化的相互联系，因为我发现 Monophysites 是那些从近东和中东跋涉到现在称为埃塞俄比亚地区的人。我与斯坎德的友谊始于 1996 年 9 月，一直持续到他于 2003 年去世，我发现他的艺术才华和热情的序曲暗示着某种现实，但总是在一个根深蒂固的神话、象征和寓言的普遍概念中颜色。Skunder 于 1937 年出生在亚的斯亚贝巴，父亲是亚美尼亚血统，母亲是埃塞俄比亚人。他的艺术培训非正式地始于当时的 Teferi Mekonnen 学校。在他还是 Teferi Mekonnen 的学生期间，他遇到了非裔美国人邻居拉里·厄斯金 (Larry Erskine)，他向他介绍了美国之音爵士乐节目，该节目曾经从丹吉尔转播到亚的斯亚贝巴。从那时起，音乐，尤其是爵士乐，塑造并形成了他画布的颜色和形状。1955年，十七岁，斯坎德在庆祝海尔·塞拉西皇帝五十周年的全国美展上获得抽象艺术二等奖。在取得这一成功后，他获得了出国留学的奖学金。他曾就读于圣马丁艺术学院和