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Vol.5 No. 15 July 28-August 3, 2012 60 Cents Follow us on TheSouthAsianTimes.info

Padma Khanna’s NJ Indian wins Rahul Gandhi will Haroon Khimani: dance group to Ramon need to deliver - Return of the perform at Olympics Magasaysay Award and fast Artist

India, Op Ed, Art and the Artist, Page 12 Page 14 Page 16 Pranab, a strong partner to America: Hillary Clinton Washington: Calling Pranab with the government and people of Mukherjee a strong partner to America India. Together we will build on our and the American people, Secretary of shared democratic values, strengthen State Hillary Clinton has congratulated this relationship even more and create a him on becoming the 13th President of brighter future for both our people." India. Mukherjee had worked through- Mukherjee was sworn in as President out his career to deepen India-US by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia in New cooperation on a wide range of issues, Delhi amid pomp and pageantry. The she said in a statement Wednesday after 76-year-old seasoned politician he assumed India's highest office. She pledged to rise above partisan politics added, in his conduct of the highest office in Maha Mahim Pranab Mukherjee, the 13th President of India, pledged to rise above partisan "I look forward to continuing to work the land. politics in his conduct of the highest office in the land. Obama calls for measures India hopes for its richest medal against gun violence New Orleans, LA: Speaking six haul at London Olympics days after the Colorado massacre, London: Carrying the hopes of a President Barack Obama advocat- billion plus people back home, ed some degree of control on the Indian athletes are supremely con- sale of weapons, but said he would fident of returning with the richest also seek a consensus on combat- medal haul from the Olympic ing violence. Games, the sport's biggest show- He said some responsibility also piece, opening in London July 27. rests with parents, neighbors and India can get medals not from teachers to ensure that young peo- one or two sports, but a handful. ple "do not have that void inside Their shooters, archers, shuttlers, them." wrestlers and boxers all look good His remarks came at a speech and they cannot fail for want of here to the National Urban League James Holmes, the suspected effort. They have all done well at in the light of the shooting in an shooter of Aurora, international meets in the run-up to Aurora, Colo., movie theater that CO theatre massacre the Games. Add tennis to the list, left 12 dead, and scores injured. crime that has cost many young that perennial medal hope. Obama pledged to work with law- lives. Impressed by the athletes' per- Despite the Second Amendment's formance in the 2010 Common- makers of both parties to stop vio- Ageing superstar Amitabh Bachchan carrying the Olympic torch in protection of gun rights, Obama Continued on page 4 lence, not only the sudden mas- London on Thursday. India has sent its biggest contingent yet said: "I also believe that a lot of US, China to battle it out for top sacres that have bedeviled the of 81 in 13 disciplines for the Games. nation, but the steady drip of urban Continued on page 4 position...page 25. 16 Art and the Artist

July 28-August 3, 2012 TheSouthAsianTimes.info Haroon Khimani Return of the Artist He seeks to discover the beauty of nature, mostly in collapsed structures and disasters, natural or man made. Returning to his passion, painting, after 39 long years, Khimani professes that art and culture can build bridges while money and power only create disputes and differences.

facing recently? in surrealism, in Salvador Dali). I India at Shantiniketan in January Haroon Khimani: Yes, for 39 am heading towards abstracts, but 2010, he said, “Self-infliction and years I could not paint as my time still I feel I must understand the the like seem to have become a part was taken up in earning bread and term abstract fully. An artist must of art practice. It seems these artists butter. My career had taken off in be honest on his path to achieve want to change the world with their 1970 when I held a solo exhibition truth in art. art but, to me, an artist should keep in Delhi at Shridharani Art Gallery. his own privacy. Essentially all art It was inaugurated by Jeram Patel,  Your paintings are crowded is a kind of soliloquy and the artist an outstanding abstract artist. I was with shards of glass, piercing first communicates with himself highly idealistic and passionate forms… they convey human suf- and then with others he conceives about my art but in those days art fering, melancholy… is that your in his own image. Besides, art can- market was not as it is today. My intention? not do many things needed to charcoal and crayon drawings An artist couldn’t be so cruel as to change the world. Art cannot do received good reviews in the press, look at human tragedies sadistically what insurrections can do.” yet I could not hit the sell button. I but could depict it in his paintings. Prof. Subramanyan then puts my was offered some work meant for What is happening around affects work in perspective: “He export with predetermined themes, him the most and becomes a theme (Khimani) was one of those young magnitude of structural juxtaposi- which was not my cup of tea. So I in his paintings. Artist is hypersen- artists of that time who responded By Parveen Chopra tion, depth, recession and space cre- returned to Madras where I served sitive to such happenings yet he is to local visual facts but represented ated by colors perceived through in the government as an art designer an onlooker who can sympathize them in a generalized or near aroon Khimani’s was a black and white tones. in the handloom sector. The full but can’t help. Right from my art abstract image, avoiding descriptive known name in the hal- “We all are habituated to see time job robbed me of the creative student time, I developed a sense of details and focusing mainly on the lowed art world in the beauty in limited terms but in disor- time I could have spent on painting. beauty looking at the natural shapes dramatic interplay of the visual ele- 1980s.H He had studied at Faculty of ganized and chaotic nature new Then, for 14 years I worked as a and forms. The scenes of broken ments, but attempted nevertheless Fine Arts at M.S. University, beauty forms are created by self- designer for cloth mills like phenomena in nature started to to preserve a vestigial reference to Baroda, the first to adopt degree destruction of the existing struc- Mafatlal, Birlas, Kohinoor & attract me and became second love the sources. And these sources lay course in fine arts in India. He stud- tures. Nature does this wonderfully Binny’s. Eventually I established after birds, especially roosters (I did in the dynamic visuals of the urban ied under Prof. N.S. Bendre and but it depends upon our outlook to my own two companies in hospital- many woodcuts of this bird’s move- scene, the crowded streets, the Prof. K.G. Subramanyan, the latter see the beauty in it. In fact, at such ity business, Artifact in Mumbai, ments.) I was never attracted to the chaotic market place, and various influencing him the most. “Not only junctures we are emotionally driven and Rikan in Dubai. human figure like other masters of categories of public festivals and in painting but in lifestyle and ide- to sympathy towards sufferers and renaissance--it tempts me as a fairs. At the time Haroon finished ology as well. I took painting as a dislocated mass, which leads us to  How has your art changed cre- shape and form but never a subject his studies and stepped into profes- conviction, a never ending passion, see the pathetic and helpless part of atively? to paint. sional scene public response to art and a way of meaningful life.” it rather than the aesthetic value.” Khimani: Every healthy (to keep was limited; to make living as a Khimani has stated his manifesto Excerpts from an exclusive inter- it fresh, not to stink) artist aims at  Art has to be about aesthet- self-employed painter or sculptor as an artist clearly on his website: “I view Khimani gave from Boston to change after working sufficiently ics/beauty? Can it still convey real- was hard. So he was obliged to seek to discover the beauty of The SATimes: on one style. This change must be ity by transmuting it (because mere move into the field of design to earn nature, mostly in collapsed struc- natural and gradual. It should grow depiction will be just documenta- his livelihood. This took him to tures and disasters, natural or man  You say you were “known in organically like limbs’ growth in a tion)? Dubai. made. Beauty has a new definition the world of art & painting in the child. It shouldn’t look like horns of Khimani: Let me quote my guru, “Now, more at peace with him- for me. My paintings look like 80s”. Does that mean you were a buffalo pasted on the head of a my mentor. In an interview Prof. self, he has come back to painting. landscapes but there is unusual away from the scene before resur- human being (which happens only Subramanyan gave to The Times of And has been for a while working

Blossoms in Disaster Houses Turned into Rags Invisible Through the Window's Frost Acrylic Collage 22X28 inch Acrylic- Collage 24X30 inch Acry-Collage 20X24 inch Art and the Artist 17

TheSouthAsianTimes.info July 28-August 3, 2012

like a maniac. Sensibly enough he HOME in my website. Gulam Khimani: I was very late in each has started where he left. The urban Mohammed Sheikh suggested I go field of activity for want of direc- scene with its contrapuntal variety. back to woodcuts even as it was a tion in my adolescent period. Thus I Its counter play of order and chaos, subject of my own choice. He even pray for longer life to fulfill my drabness and color, shadow and wrote a line commending me in his mission and wish that people illumination still seems to engage book ‘Contemporary Art in Baroda’ should give priority to understand him. His works are no factual on my interest in woodcuts while in their kids in the right perspective records but the recreation of the college. instead of dreaming and expecting animation. For this he uses diverse them to lead the way they choose. media and visual devices and builds  Something about your with these eye catching tapestries family…  You have three addresses: with a surfeit of details. At a time Khimani: My family is educated Bombay, Dubai, and Boston…! when a large number of artists and understanding. My two sons Khimani: All the three are my choose to see the world from a dis- are a big support to my activities. homes. It is easier to get things done tance and comment on it with sar- My daughter-in-law is the first to in the US, where I stay during spring casm and satire, Haroon Khimani criticize my paintings when fin- and summer. I stay in Bombay at does the opposite; producing works ished. This was the source of my the start of a year, to be in touch that are visceral and celebrative.” resuming paintings after 39 long with art winds of India. I have studio years. there too. I also travel through India,  Which contemporary painters which provides source for my paint- you admire besides Mani?  Any other relevant details you ings. Dubai is a base for family with Reflection of Images Khimani: Gulam Mohammed want to add… two grandsons with whom I enjoy. Acrylic Collage 22X28 inch Sheikh, Jeram Patel, M.F. Hussain, J. Swaminathan, V.S. Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, etc.

 Any exhibitions you have planned next? Khimani: I could not get desired gallery dates in New York. So I opted to show at India Art Festival, Mumbai, from November 28 to December 2, 2012. Presently most of the galleries are overflowing with mediocre works which man- age to sell, perhaps due to below average understanding of art by people.

 Art, even Indian art, in recent years has been fetching astronom- ical prices in the global market of Christie’s and Sotheby’s auctions, etc… Khimani: At times dramatics are needed to get name and fame, often No Escape Harmony in Wall Painting irrespective of merits of work. Acry-Collage 24X30 inch Acry-Collage 20X24 inch Prices go with brand name. But art cannot be judged by the price tag. For instance, impressionism of the 19th century was damned by critics accustomed to realism in art. Now these works fetch millions. Today, business houses are all for financial growth instead of cultural development. They don’t support fields like art as much as they should. We often tend to forget that culture can solve more problems than money. It’s only culture that can builds bridges while money and power only create disputes and dif- ferences.

 Why have you kept the home page of your website in black and white? Khimani: Because my woodcuts of cocks and scaffolding drawings Crash Nature Strikes were mainly in B&W, which forms Acrylic, Collage 22X28 inch Acrylic,Collage 24X30 inch