Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/122433
INSIDE The Head of ... . Or JIM {REVOLUTIONARY} On meeting Ann in the heat of a brawl. I was tough when I came down here. Yes. I gave this Mexican artist a show when I was the director of CAMH. It was time to move the piece, and he didn't want to, so then he hit me. We started fighting, out of the museum into the street. When I finally knocked him down, Ann was walking by and immediately asked a friend. "Who's that fighting out there?" Her friend said, "It's the new museum director." And she immediately became interested in me because I won the fight. On dealing with a Brady Bunch family? We were married in '78. I have three kids; Ann four. I had daughters. She had daughters and one son. Seven kids. That's a new problem every day, so that prepares you for war. Most of them are girls. They're tough. I learned how to treat women carefully and correctly. I also had sisters, and seven aunts on my father's side. The importance of headgear. I always had a cap as a kid. And for a lot of my museum career, you couldn't wear a cap. But when I got to Texas, you could wear a cap anytime. I liked that, and my cap is also promoting the Art Car Museum, which I think is great. Why I don't hunt or fish. I like to travel, and I like to travel and look at art. I did spend that whole period of my life in the '80s going to Central America. As a military person, the idea of being in a war zone was not as terrifying to me. And once you get used to going, you want to do something to help the cause. So we used to bring antibiotics. We would make stops at mainly Catholic churches. They were helping people. Next stamp on my passport. The big trip we have ahead of us is Pakistan. That's the next place we'll probably do a show about. My immediate trip is to Europe. Documenta [Kasel, Germany]. I also want to go to Munich and to the Berlin Biennale. HARITHAS THE MAN AT THE TOP OF THE STATION MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART… ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT TYPE, CONTROVERSY IS Brad Pitt will not play me in a movie. Some old guy would play me. I like foreign movies. I don't pay any attention to regular movies. The last movie I saw was The Violin. Made in Mexico. It's one of the most sophisticated movies about Mexico and the problems there that I've ever seen. ROGUE AND RADICAL, ICONOCLASTIC AND INDEPENDENT … HOUSTON'S REBEL WITH My nights on the town. We like to go to Kata Robata. We went there with 17 artists after an opening. Then we go to Mr. Gino's, a blues place in the Fifth Ward. It's a great place for listening to music on a Sunday night. It's $5 admission, and you have to pay for your beer. They used to feed you for the $5, and the food was great. HIS MIDDLE NAME … COMPELLED TO CLASH, POLITICALLY CHARGED DIRECTOR/CURATOR… A CAUSE, VOICE OF THE UNDERDOG … ONCE SUBSISTED ON BREAD AND WATER … PAST DIRECTOR OF THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM HOUSTON … KNOWS HOW TO FIST FIGHT … MARRIED TO ANN HARITHAS, WHO BEGAN THE ART CAR MOVEMENT. Philosophy. We need a revolution. A lot of my ideas about politics, especially for the Station, are that we had to take a stand. People will say to me, "You grew up in the military, and you're a lefty." It's because I grew up in the military that I'm a lefty. I take my citizenship seriously. And if it's not urgent, why even show it. Why I now drive a Lexus. I had an old Suburban for so long that Ann wouldn't get into in it any longer, it was so beat up. Military kids don't have cars. No, I'm not really interested. I grew up in the military. Kids didn't have cars. I asked my father when I was 17. He looked at me and said, "You don't even know how to wear a suit and walk down the street like a man. Don't mention cars to me." "I don't remember why, but I was in Venice in 1952." Exercise is for sissies. I did kung fu for 14 years. Shing Yi, which was a very hard thing. I went all the way up to what is equivalent to a black belt, which really helped me when I started going to Central America. Power tool. My favorite is an M-16. I want to protect my house. Bath accoutrement I can't live without. Larry Fuente's wedding gift: a toilet shaped like a throne of the Virgin Mary. It was one of his first significant pieces. Talent you wish you had? Writing. It's hard for me to get a sentence straight. I really was a painter originally. Writing was not part of my education ... The only time I write is at the computer now, trying to say something significant about an artist … It's always the same old essay. Real literary writing, that's what we aspire to. My cruising music. Right now I'm listening to hip hop. It's so good. Lil' Wayne. From New Orleans, lives in Houston … Don't you love this [playing Shooter on his Lexus stereo]? Southern hip hop is much more melodic. It's richer. It's not as hard as the Northern stuff. Artwork, above left: Ann Harithas' Nest Egg, 2012 Jim Harithas, 2012, at The Station Circa 1968, in an artist's studio, Washington, D.C.