Boghossian received a government scholarship in 1955 to study at the Slade School of Art in London. A year later he moved to Paris to attend the Académie de la Grande Chaumiére. He returned to Addis Ababa in 1966 and taught at the Government Fine Arts School. Since coming to the United States in 1970, Boghossian has been an artist-in-residence at Atlanta and Hampton Universities and, since 1974, has taught at Howard University, School of Fine Arts, in Washington, D.C.

Spring Scrolls
1983-84
Acrylic on canvas
128 x 182.2 cm (50 3/8 x 71 3/4 in.)
91-18-1, museum purchase

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.