Night Flight of Dread and Delight
Artist
Skunder (Alexander) Boghossian
Ethiopian, Addis Ababa 1937–2003, active in the United States 1970–2003
Date1964
MediumOil on canvas with collage
Dimensions56 5/8 x 62 5/8 in. (143.8 x 159.1 cm)
Frame: 59 1/4 x 66 x 3 in. (150.5 x 167.6 x 7.6 cm)
Frame: 59 1/4 x 66 x 3 in. (150.5 x 167.6 x 7.6 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)
Object number98.6
On View
On viewPublished ReferencesMax Halperen, "Nature and the Surreal," Raleigh, The News and Observer (January 2, 2000), 24 ("What's Up" insert).
Solomon Deressa, "Skunder in Context," Ethiopian Business and Industry Report 3, no. 1 (January/February 1997), 27, illus. (color) front cover and inside back cover (as Juju's Flight of Delight and Terror).
"Art Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Annual Report (1998-99), 7.
"Museum Acquires Major African Works," in North Carolina Museum of Art supplement to the Durham Herald-Sun (Winter 1999), discussed and illus. (color) 10.
Cathy Gant-Hill, "African American Art: Some galleries have bigger collections than others," Greensboro, NC: The News & Record (February 26, 1999), mentioned.
"African Work on Loan to the Ackland Art Museum." North Carolina Museum of Art Preview and Calendar of Events (January/February 2000), 12, illus. (b-w).
Solomon Deressa, "Skunder in Context," Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, no. 11/12 (Fall/Winter 2000), discussed 84-85 (as Juju's Flight of Delight and Terror), illus. (color) 80 (as Night Flight of Dread and Delight).
Mark D'Amato, "Transatlantic Dialogue: Contemporary Art In and Out of Africa" (exhibition review), New Art Examiner 28, no. 4 (December 2000/January 2001), 53.
Okwui Enwezor, ed., The Short Century (exhibition catalogue) (Munich: Museum Villa Stuck, 2001), cat. listed 482, illus. (color) 67.
Mary Ellen Soles, "Accent on Africa: Recent Acquisitions of African Art," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (March/April 2003), very briefly discussed 9, illus. (color) 8.
Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (May/June 2003), illus. (color) 22, detail (color) inside back cover.
"Friends of African and African American Art," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (July/August 2003), mentioned 6.
Max Halperen, "Objects of Desire: The Museum Collects, 1994-2004," (exhibition review) Art Papers (November/December 2004), very briefly discussed 45.
Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. Continuity and Change: Three Generations of Ethiopian Artists (exhibition catalogue) (Gainesville: University of Florida, 2007), briefly discussed 56 and illus. (color) 57.
Marilyn G. Stewart and Eldon Katter, Explorations in Art (textbook) (Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, Inc., 2008), noted 179, illus. (color) xiv, 178, 179.
John W. Coffey, entry for Night Flight of Dread and Delight, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 498, illus. (color) 499.
Christine Mullen Kreamer, “A Universe of Possibilities,” in African Cosmos: Stellar Arts, Christine Mullen Kreamer, et al, (New York: The Monacelli Press in conjunction with the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, 2012), discussed 303, illus. (color) 304, fig. 17.4.
“Under an African Sky, Gazing Up With Awe” (exhibition review), New York Times (August 31, 2012), briefly discussed C22.
“NKA Roundtable III: Contemporary African Art and the Museum,” in NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art 31 (Fall 2012), mentioned 95.
Claudia Mesch, Art and Politics: A Small History of Art for Social Change since 1945 (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2013), discussed and illus. (b-w) 50, fig. 2.2.
Chika Okeke-Agulu, Postcolonial Modernism (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2015), briefly discussed 176–177, illus. (color) 178, fig. 4.25.
Okwui Enwezor, Katy Siegel, and Ulrich Wilmes, eds. Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945–1965 (exhibition catalogue) (Munich, London and New York: Prestel Verlag, in association with the Stiftung Haus der Kunst, München, 2016), illus. (color) 593, no. 245.
Elizabeth Harney, “Constellations and Coordinates: Repositioning Postwar Paris in Stories of African Modernisms,” in Mapping Modernisms: Art, Indigeneity, Colonialism, Elizabeth Harney and Ruth B. Phillips, eds. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018), briefly discussed 321–322, illus. (b-w) 322, fig. 12.9.
Elizabeth W. Giorgios, Modernist Art in Ethiopia (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2019), discussed 147–149, illus. (color) 147, fig. 3.8.
Stephanie D’Allesandro, Matthew Gale, et al, Surrealism Beyond Borders (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021), mentioned 18, illus. (color) 237, fig. 220.
Alex Greenberger, “Surrealism Beyond Europe: 5 Essential Artists Getting Recognition at New Met Show,” Art News (October 15, 2021). Accessed at: https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/artists/under-recognized-surrealists-met-museum-1234607237/
Marianna Gingher, "Poetry Lessons" in “You Are the River: Literature Inspired by the North Carolina Museum of Art,” edited by Helena Feder (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2021), illus (color) 36.
Donovan O. Schaefer, Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power (Durham: Duke University Press, 2015), illus. (color).
Perrin M. Lathrop, ed., African Modernism in America (New York: American Federation of Arts, 2022) illus. (color) 43, fig. 5. [Note: not loaned for this exhibition.]Exhibition HistoryChapel Hill, NC, Ackland Art Museum, "Transatlantic Dialogue: Contemporary Art In and Out of Africa," December 19, 1999-March 26, 2000; Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, May 21-September 3, 2000, cat. 20-21, 52, 62, illus. (b-w) 20, illus. (color) 62.
Munich, Museum Villa Stuck, "The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994," February 15-April 22, 2001; Berlin, House of World Cultures in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, May 18-July 22, 2001; Chicago, IL, Museum of Contemporary Art, September 8-December 30, 2001, cat. listed 482, illus. (color) 67.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Accent on Africa: Recent Acquisitions of African Art," April 6-August 10, 2003, brochure no. 13, illus. (b-w).
Gainesville, FL, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, "Continuity and Change: Three Generations of Ethiopian Artists," January 23-May 6, 2007; Winston-Salem, NC, Diggs Art Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, May 26-December 8, 2007, illus. (color).
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Far from Home," February 17-July 13, 2008
Washington, DC, National Museum of African Arts, “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts,” June 20–December 9, 2012, cat. p. 303, illus. (color) 304, fig. 17.4.
Munich, Haus der Kunst, “Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and Atlantic, 1945–1965,” October 14, 2016–March 26, 2017, illus. (color) 593, no. 245.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Modern Pop: Modernism and Popular Arts in Kenya and Ethiopia" (Focus On Contemporary African Arts gallery), August 20, 2019-June 20, 2021.
New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Surrealism Beyond Borders,” October 11, 2021–January 30, 2022, illus. (color) 237, fig. 220.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Becoming the NCMA: 10 Decades of Collecting, 1924-2022," June 11-August 21, 2022.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–October 8, 2023.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "“a little offbeat, a little dreamy, and mysterious,” November 15, 2023-present. Object Rights Statement
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