[3] Boghossian was born on July 22, 1937, in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, a year and a half after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

[2] In primary and secondary school, he was taught by both Ethiopian and foreign tutors and became fluent in Amharic, Armenian, English, and French.

[7] French Canadian philosopher and painter, Jacques Goudbet, also influenced Boghossian, allowing him to create paintings without them feeling forced.

[1][7][9][6] While he spent some time in Paris, Boghossian talked often about political and cultural influences, citing Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Cheikh Anta Diop and well as creative forces in modern art like Paul Klee.

His earlier paintings depended on the combination of biomorphic forms and minutely detailed abstract notations, he populated the spaces of his new work with bold, polychomatic, geometric, and "African" motifs.

[10] Taking a look at his heritage, Ethiopia has a long tradition of wall painting in churches and of illustrated manuscripts reaching back to the eighth century.

It is from this cultural fountain that once included three-fourths of Ancient Egypt, the builders of the great pyramids and the cradle of civilization, that the artist drew inspiration from.

[11] He also mined his early childhood memories, Coptic markings in Biblical art, illuminated church manuscripts, and ancient scrolls to stamp iconic signatures thick and crusty, flat and smooth, on canvas, hardboard, bark cloth, aluminum or paper.

[3] When considering his art as a whole, he focused on color being used to illuminate, to create superimposed dimensions of form and shape, which in turn enables the viewer to first see the painting as a unit, then as a simultaneous breaking up of images, and finally as a recognition of the identities.

He would often start his day sprinkling the house with St. Michael’s holy water, meditate, burn incense, and commune with the “jujus”, asking for forgiveness and blessings.

This along with his acclaim gained from his 1964 exhibition at the Galerie Lambert earned him an invitation to become a member of the avant-garde movement, Phase, which he left shortly to work with André Breton.

[1] The umbrella organization for Ethiopia's oldest secular schools is named after him, the Skunder Boghossian College of Performing and Visual Arts.