Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian

Blind Faith

1991

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Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian

Blind Faith

Alexander "Skunder" Boghossian

Blind Faith

1991

Physical Qualities Gouache and pastel on card stock, Image: 26 × 39 3/4 in. (26 × 39 3/4 in.)

Credit Line The Amy Gould/Matthew Polk Fund and Art Fund established with exchange funds from gifts of Dr. and Mrs. Edgar F. Berman, Equitable Bank, N.A., Geoffrey Gates, Sandra O. Moose, National Endowment for the Arts, Lawrence Rubin, Philip M. Stern, and Alan J. Zakon

Object Number 2022.53

An epic tug-of-war is being fought across the surface of this drawing, one that pits a bird in the upper left against a human figure in the lower right. Between them, signs and symbols of Ethiopia and its Christian Orthodox Church fill the composition in brilliant, almost-neon pastel. Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian—an Ethiopian-born, Washington, D.C.-based artist—created Blind Faith in the immediate aftermath of the 17-year-long Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991). The work’s imagery and title reflect the hope and uncertainty of the time.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, by purchase, 2022-present; Ambrose Naumann, New York, by purchase at Bonhams Auction House, 2021-2022; Family of Skunder Boghossian, by descent, 2003-2021

"Diaspora Dialogue: Art of Kwabena Ampofo-Anti, Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian, and Victor Ekpuk," University of Maryland, University College Art Gallery, 2013.