For much of my professional life, I’ve introduced people to artists.
Perhaps it’s time I introduced you to the artist I’ve been all along.
Although, come to think of it, my mother might have something to say about that.
My mother, Pooran Cheknian, was a painter. I, meanwhile, had developed an incurable affection for the theatre, which landed me in New York, studying at the Stella Adler Conservatory around 1990. It was a splendid education, not least because I discovered that life was full of extraordinary characters, most of whom had never set foot on a stage.
Then came museums, art history, and decades of encounters with artists, their work, their ambitions, and occasionally their rather extravagant opinions of themselves. I founded MuseumViews and made something of a career out of observing the artistic temperament. A profession for which, regrettably, I was not without personal qualifications.
But theatre never left me.
My paintings are not so much portraits of famous people as portraits of performances, personalities, and moments that have stayed with me. Ian McKellen’s Richard III at BAM in June 1992, for instance, has clearly never quite left the building.
And now I paint and write plays, surrounded by an increasingly unruly company of actors, playwrights, dancers, and bouquets of mutinous flowers, the latter proving particularly difficult to direct.
So, dear friends of MuseumViews, I’ll be sharing more of my own paintings, theatrical adventures, and the stories behind them, alongside our continuing conversations about museums and art.
A new chapter? Not entirely.
More of a homecoming.
Rather overdue, admittedly. But I’ve never been particularly punctual about my entrances.
Homa
I’m delighted to share this side of my work with you: https://homataj.com/