KARG: I did not start working with Skunder until he was well established at Howard University where he taught a masters class. I do know that he came to America in the early 1970s. Speaking of dates, there are some facts about Skunder that I think many people may not recognize. Skunder, after winning a competition, was sent by the Emperor to art school in Europe when he was fifteen years old. He did not return to Ethiopia until 1968, where he stayed until 1970, when the country was becoming increasingly unstable. He migrated to the United States never to return. So here is this quintessential Ethiopian artist, many would say the father of Ethiopian contemporary art, who only spent three years of his adult life in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian iconography, it seems, was as strong as his ability to absorb it. Another interesting fact about his early life is that, the best I can figure, he was in art school at the School of Paris about the same time as the father of Senegalese contemporary art: Iba Ndiaye. It was a big and free-wheeling school so it is certainly possible that their paths did not cross; however, one must wonder if a friendship might have formed or there might have been a cross current of artistic influences. While in Paris, Skunder reported to be influenced by Barque, Picasso, and he often mentioned Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam. However, as an impressionable young adult, he recalled that on a personal as well as a societal level it was Paris that made its mark. It was Paris that allowed him the freedom and independence to move outside the beautiful, but conservative, constricted, and traditional Ethiopian society he had known. In Ethiopia artistic freedom and experimentation would not have been welcomed or encouraged. Paris is the place that Skunder was both encouraged and allowed to become Ethiopia’s first modern contemporary artist. Skunder stayed in Paris well after his education ended. Paris has a way of capturing your attention and your heart. When he returned to Ethiopia he taught at their School of Fine Arts and he made such an impression that the half dozen “second generation” artists I knew, to the person, talked about their personal struggle to create their own visual “voice” and independence. It is my opinion the Skunder influence was so strong that some of them, sadly, never did. While in Ethiopia, there was an interesting and unusual work that Skunder created. He was there just at the time when Hilton was building the first international hotel in the country. One wall of the main restaurant/bar was a glass wall composed of 6” x 6” squares each encased in a heavy picture frame cornice. They invited Skunder to create an abstract work of each of those 6” x 6” squares. The abstraction of the panels would have been a challenge

中文翻译：

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记住亚历山大“斯坎德”博戈斯安：对威廉卡格的采访

KARG：直到斯坎德在霍华德大学教了一个硕士课程，我才开始与他合作。我确实知道他是在 1970 年代初来到美国的。说到日期，我想很多人可能不知道关于斯坎德的一些事实。斯坎德赢得比赛后，十五岁时被皇帝送到欧洲的艺术学校。直到 1968 年，他才返回埃塞俄比亚，并在那里待到 1970 年，当时该国变得越来越不稳定。他移民到美国再也没有回来。所以这就是这位典型的埃塞俄比亚艺术家，很多人会说他是埃塞俄比亚当代艺术之父，他的成年生活只在埃塞俄比亚度过了三年。埃塞俄比亚的肖像画似乎与他吸收它的能力一样强大。关于他早年生活的另一个有趣的事实是，据我所知，他和塞内加尔当代艺术之父 Iba Ndiaye 大约在同一时间就读于巴黎学院的艺术学校。那是一所大而随心所欲的学校，所以他们的道路当然有可能没有交叉；然而，人们必须怀疑是否可能已经形成了友谊，或者是否可能存在艺术影响的交叉流。据报道，在巴黎期间，斯坎德受到巴克、毕加索的影响，他经常提到古巴艺术家威尔弗雷多·林。然而，作为一个易受影响的年轻人，他回忆说，在个人和社会层面上，巴黎都取得了成功。正是巴黎让他能够自由和独立地走出他所知道的美丽但保守、狭隘和传统的埃塞俄比亚社会。在埃塞俄比亚，艺术自由和实验不会受到欢迎或鼓励。巴黎是斯坎德被鼓励并被允许成为埃塞俄比亚第一位现代当代艺术家的地方。Skunder在他的学业结束后一直留在巴黎。巴黎有一种方式来吸引你的注意力和你的心。当他回到埃塞俄比亚时，他在他们的美术学院任教，他给人的印象如此之大，以至于我认识的六位“第二代”艺术家向他讲述了他们为创造自己的视觉“声音”和独立而进行的个人斗争. 在我看来，斯坎德的影响是如此之大，遗憾的是，他们中的一些人从未这样做过。在埃塞俄比亚期间，Skunder 创作了一件有趣且不寻常的作品。就在希尔顿在该国建造第一家国际酒店时，他就在那里。主餐厅/酒吧的一面墙是玻璃墙，由 6 英寸 x 6 英寸的正方形组成，每个正方形都包裹在沉重的相框檐口中。他们邀请 Skunder 为每个 6” x 6” 正方形创作抽象作品。面板的抽象将是一个挑战