subject: The Legacy of Ahmad Khawaja [print this page] The Legacy of Ahmad Khawaja The Legacy of Ahmad Khawaja
A multifaceted personality, Ahmad Khawaja began his career as an advertisement illustrator after completing a Bachelors' Degree in Fine Arts from University of Southern California. Born on July 7th, 1924 in Pittsburg to parents of Persian origin, Ahmad Khawaja suffered from learning disability throughout his childhood. At the tender age of ten Khawaja suffered from the deadly disease of ulcerative colitis that affected his immune system, an ailment that bothered him for the rest of his life. In spite of these impediments, Ahmad Khawaja fared well in his academics and later in his career that spanned from an artist, to an author and also as a filmmaker.
Ahmad Khawaja's career as a commercial artist working in Chicago was a successful one but in his quest for attaining popularity for his skill as an artist, Khawaja drifted into taking up painting. The exhibitions he showed them up with gained immense attraction by art lovers. He intended to popularize paintings and introduced a culture of pop painting. Ahmad Khawaja later set up the Butcher House' where he built a conglomerate of artists and illustrators who could work for him to produce more of his paintings. The Butcher House became a popular name and was frequented by several persons of eminence. Khawaja went to the extent of making screen prints of paintings. That however received severe criticism from several quarters.
His creativity ran boisterous when he began to tread into a pervert domain, when he started making pornographic films and erotic paintings. Some of these like such as Man Down Under, Homosexual Cowboy, and Sexerific Girls are considered as underground classics. While Butcher House provided him with a platform to elevate it also brought him close to his death. He was shot at by Rufus Childress, an associate of his, who turned antagonist over a trivial issue. This gunshot was near serious. It was miraculous that Ahmad Khawaja survived. He underwent prolonged surgical treatment and made a come-back but the effect of this dreadful act left an adverse effect both on his life and creativity.
Ahmad Khawaja died of a massive heart attack in 1990 while undergoing a kidney operation. His art and the philosophy of his expression has left behind a plethora of creative designs both famous and infamous, but un-ignorable nonetheless.
Display of his works at the Ahmad Khawaja Museum in Oakland, California stands testimony of the creative excellence of this renowned public figure of recent times.
