The Brooklyn Rail

I had the great fortune to work with Jim Harithas a few times, the first being a show in 2006 at Houston’s Station Museum of “Texas Legends,” featuring Daniel Johnston, Gibby Haynes, Clark Fox, Anthony Ausgang and happily, myself. It was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. The museum enabled me to create a Guernica homage in my signature style by commissioning an enormous canvas one foot longer and one foot taller than Picasso’s original, which I painted over the course of a month inside the museum. I painted by day and was Jim’s houseguest, spending long nights after wonderful meals in deep-dive discussions on world events. Jim had experienced so much of the world. I came to realize it was his intense intelligence and curiosity mixed with empathy and sense of fair play, facilitated by boundless courage, that defined his singular greatness.

Jim once told me a story about his experience in Palestine. He was curating a show of Palestinian artists for his Station Museum. They were having tea in a café when the whole place shook from the explosion and leveling of the building next door. Jim could see the frightened looks on the artists’ faces. He quickly learned that it wasn’t the bomb exploding that scared them but rather the look of terror on his own face. They wondered, how spooked was the museum director? Would he still give them a show? They were, after all, still alive. The answer was, of course. They were talking to Jim Harithas, a man who walked unafraid through life, always committed to great—and frequently explosive—ideas.

When I created the show for Jim I also took it upon myself to slaughter the neighborhood with my illegal billboards, which are basically parody ads with a social justice edge.  One in particular, The King Of The Jews for The King of the Beers, depicting Jesus Christ shilling for Budweiser, stirred national outrage, and also prompted the local police to descend upon the Station Museum in search of the outlaw artist. Jim and his team stood in cross armed defiance to the grilling of the police, never giving away the culprit. Instead he invited me back for a little more social agitation.

The Station Museum exemplified everything singular about Jim: his inclusivity, radical commitment to outside points of view, and ceaseless support for artists. He understood our creative compulsions and moved heaven and earth to provide space to link ideas and spark dialog to make this world a better place. It’s up to us now to embody his universalist spirit.