Abdul Karim Rahimi John McDonald

John McDonald is visual art critic at the Sydney Morning Herald. From 1999 to 2000 he was head of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia. He has written several monographs on Australian artists including Jeffrey Smart and is working on a history of Australian art.
Whilst Rahimi was studying at the University of NSW, McDonald came and spoke about the history of Australian art, he was very impressed with his lecture. McDonald, he believes, is a great supporter of the development of art in this country.
Born in Afghanistan, Rahimi fled for his life from the Taliban, escaping to Pakistan in. Believing there was little future for his children there, he successfully applied, for he and his family to come to Australia as refugees in 1998.
His portrait of McDonald combines two cultures. The realistic portrait relates to his new life here while the painted frame is in the style of Afghani miniature art, a genre in which Rahimi was a specialist. “My future goal is to maintain the miniature technique but to combine it with Australian subjects,” he says. “To paint in a totally Afghan style would be wrong now because Australia is my homeland but I lived 50 years of my life in Afghanistan.”
Born in 1948, Rahimi was associate professor at the Faculty of Arts, University of Kabul from 1987 to 1992. Prior to that he was department head of Painting and Cultural Consultations assistant at the same university. In 1990 he was awarded the title Distinguished Cultural Figure of the Republic of Afghanistan. He is also the recipient of 11 orders and medals and over 30 certificates of appreciation and honorary diplomas in Afghanistan. Since arriving in Australia, he has completed a Diploma in Fine Arts at the University of Western Sydney followed by a Master of Art and a Master of Fine Arts at the University of NSW. He has been represented in 35 exhibitions in Afghanistan and 18 in Australia. He was awarded two first prizes (watercolour and local artist) in the Blacktown City Art Exhibition in 2003. Last year his Archibald entry was hung in the Salon Des Refuses.