Arts ^Entertainment
Wednesday, November 2,1994 Page 6
Artist exits war zone
to explore creativity
By >»an McCarthy
Staff Reporter
Though several paintings hang from
Faridun Negmat-Zoda’s studio, he has
worked on only one this past month.
Negmat-Zoda has spent more than six
hours each day on this painting. The paint
ing, entitled “Aurora,” features a woman
looking off into a field of flowers in the
night. He is perfecting each colorful flower
and the color of the sky. His work is near
completion.
Originally from Tajikistan, one of the
former provinces of the old Soviet Union,
Negmat-Zoda began his painting career when
he was 11. Showing promise as a painter, he
was admitted in 1970 to the prestigious
Moscow High School for the Arts of the
U.S.S.R. Academy ofthe Arts. He graduated
six years laier.
Negmat-Zoda then was admitted to the
V I. Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow.
Since graduating in 1982, Negmat-Zoda has
had exhibits in the United States, Syria and
Lebanon. Now he isaartist for the Noyes Art
Gallery.
Negmat-Zoda discovered the Noyes Gal
lery when he participated in an international
exchange program. The program, entitled
“The Sister City Program,” involves locat
ing a city on the exact opposite side of the
world. Participants of the program then
“adopt” natives of their sister city and show
them their own city. Lincoln’s sister city is
Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Friends who “adopted” Negmat-Zoda
introduced him to the Noyes Gallery. His
first exhibit in America was in that gallery.
“People encourage you here,” Negmat
Zoda said. “You have deadlines, but it’s a
real co-op here.”
Before coming to Lincoln, Negmat-Zoda
literally was living in a war zone. For the
past decade, Tajikistan has warred both with
the old Soviet Union and with factions within
the land.
Negmat-Zoda said he witnessed many
demonstrations in the streets. He also said it
was common to have people firing at each
other on his street.
-—-—r
“It was horrible because it's
very hard to make something
creative when there was so
much craziness going
around. ”
■
FARIDUN
NEGMAT-ZODA
artist
“It was horrible because it’s very hard to
make something creative when there was so
much craziness going around,” he said.
Before coming to Lincoln, Negmat-Zoda
visited the United States periodically. Since
1990, he has had his works featured in Iowa,
Colorado, New York City and Washington,
D.C. While in Washington, one art patron
paid his air fare and bought four ofhis works.
Most of Negmat-Zoda’s works are oil on
canvas. He said he preferred working with
acrylic paints. Rich shades of brown and
blue are common in most of his works.
Objects in his work are clear and sharp,
giving his works a Middle Eastern feel.
“As for all artists, it is usual to want more
and more out of your work and try different
things,” Negmat-Zoda said.
Each of his works either stems from a
story or tries to tell a story, he said. Most of
his story inspiration comes from ancient
Greek or Oriental mythology, he said. Other
sources of inspiration come from the smell
of things around him, he said.
For November, Negmat-Zoda is assigned
to paint a mural outside the Noyes Gallery.
During that month, he also will collaborate
with other gallery artists on various works.
Each work will involve two or more artists.
Although Negmat-Zoda said he was happy
to be a part of the Noyes Gallery, he admit
ted he would like to have his works in other
parts of the country. New Mexico and Cali
fornia are his first choices.
Michelle Paulman/DN
Fart dun Nagmat-Zoda, an artist from Tg|lklstan, takas a braak from Ns
work to gaza out tha window of Ns studio at Noyas Art Qallary. Tha placa
baNnd Nm Is callad “Lava.”
People
Audience gets
treat of seeing
trick on singer
NEW YORK (AP)—The audience at
the Metropolitan Opera got a Halloween
treat. The trick was played on Luciano
Pavarotti.
The tenor, singing in Monday night’s
’Tosca,” repeated an aria to his own
great surprise. Normally, the Metropoli
tan, unlike other opera houses, does not
repeat an aria when applause brings a
production to a halt.
“That was our trick or treat for Hal
loween — trick Luciano and treat the
audience,” conductor James Levine said
at intermission.
Pavarotti received a long ovation for
his third-act aria “E luce van le stelle.”
“When he heard the music that pre
cedes the aria instead of the music that
follows it, he got a stunned look on his
face,” said Joseph Volpe, Met general
manager. “He walked around to the front
of the table, slowly, like in disbelief.”
Then Pavarotti sang the aria again.
Volpe said this was the first time an
artist had encored an aria since the Met
ropolitan Opera opened in Lincoln Cen
ter in 1966.
Art director says taking risks important
■y Paula uvignt
Senior Reporter
Taking risks in the arts can be a danger
ous game, an arts director said Tuesday, but
it’s a game that must be played for art to
continue to explore and reflect social is
sues.
John Killacky, director of performing
arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapo
lis, felt the controversy of risk firsthand.
He spoke to a packed house at the Howell
Theater for “Risk in the Arts: A Tradition of
Radical Challenges to Accepted Norms,” a
discussion sponsored by the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln College of Fine and Per
forming Arts.
For the past 20 years, the Walker Art
Center has sponsored experimental artists
including composer John Cage, performance
artist Karen Finley and choreographer Bill
T. Jones.
The center’s most recent controversy
involved a performance last March by artist
Ron Athey. Athey is gay and HIV-positive.
Athey drew blood from himself and an
other performer to expose the relation of
AIDS to society. Athey blotted the man’s
blood with paper towels and sent the towels
on a clothesline over about 100 audience
members.
Killacky showed a music video version
of Athey’s performance set to music by
Porno for Pyros. He also showed footage of
conservative talk show host Rush
“Artists don’t cause, they
reflect. ”
m
JOHN KILLACKY
director of performing arts Walker Art
Center
Limbaugh’s reaction to Athey’s perfor
mance.
Limbaugh said taxpayers’ money should
not go to fund something that “made audi
ence members go, ‘Get me out of here.’”
Killacky said the local health depart
ment approved Athey’s performance, and
none of the audience members panicked.
But the flow of controversy continued.
“There’s no way to talk about the truth of
what happened,’’ he said. “Athey’s work
comes from a context... Any artist does not
work in a vacuum.”
Killacky said certain members of Con-'
gress wanted to discontinue National En
dowment for the Arts funding for “trans
gressive art,” art that goes beyond tradi
tional boundaries.
Killacky spoke of transgressive artists
throughout history, such as Pablo Picasso,
who were once rejected as “imbeciles” and
are now considered masters.
It is important that contemporary artists
keep taking risks, he said, because they
have to show where today’s issues of race, ,
sex, violence, money and class exist.
“Artists don’t cause, they reflect,” he
said.
Transgressive artists also were “pulling
out the rug” from social norms, Killacky
said, and forcing people to re-examine their
own values.
“We’re really going to have a strong
society. We can’t have this melting pot
theory. That is complete bullshit, because
everyone is fried,” he said.
Instead, he said society should move
toward becoming a “patchwork quilt.”
Killacky said he wanted to complement
his views on taking risks in the arts with a
view from the commercial world. He in
vited to the forum Kevin Fahey, director of
research for SmithKJine Beecham, a Lin
coln-based pharmaceutical company.
Fahey said taking risks in the arts was
similar to taking risks in science.
As a child, Fahey dropped out of singing,
art and dance classes and instead played
with his chemistry set.
“I started making little bombs. Then I
made bigger bombs and bigger bombs. I
could blow craters in the backyard,” he
said, laughing.
Fahey said if scientists such as Alexander
Fleming, who invented penicillin, would
have avoided taking risks, they would not
have been able to better society with their
research.
