“No one would have ever remembered the horrors of Guernica if not for the painting,” says famed Colombian artist Fernando Botero.
Botero refers to Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece “Guernica,” which depicts the aerial bombardment of civilians during the Spanish Civil War. In his new series of paintings “Iraqi detainees are shown being beaten by American prison guards, made to wear women’s lingerie and suffering other abuse.”
“This conduct by the Americans was a total shock for me,” Botero told the Colombian magazine Diners in an interview. “I am increasingly sensitive to injustice, which makes my blood boil, and these paintings were born from the anger provoked by this horror.” More below:
The Bogota daily El Tiempo, commenting on the collection, wrote yesterday: “These are compositions determined by time and memory … that emanate a strange sensuality, which could be interpreted as an ironic commentary of infamous memories that inspired the work.” (The Independent)
Botero, who will not sell the paintings but will loan the works to museums, wants the series to be shown in the U.S. — “the matter concerns that country above all.”
The paintings are being shown in Italy, at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome, “the former residence of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini … Botero is the first living painter whose works will be shown there.”
“I, like everyone else, was shocked by the barbarity, especially because the United States is supposed to be this model of compassion,” Botero said in an interview from his art studio in Paris.
Botero has also depicted the killing of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar during a rooftop shootout and last year “held an exhibition in Bogota about Colombia’s 40-year-old guerrilla conflict.”
Perhaps someday he — or some other great artist — can paint the international tribunals of George W. Bush and his cohorts.
His aim, he said, was to brand the images on the conscience of the world, in the way that Picasso’s Guernica preserved forever the memory of how innocent civilians were bombed during the Spanish civil war. (The Independent)
Besides The Independent and Common Dreams, both quoted above, Der Spiegel also has an excellent review of Botero’s new show.
“Art Saves Lives”: The message of my bumpersticker, purchased at a native arts gallery in Pt. Townsend, WA.
I hope an art gallery in the U.S. dares to show his paintings. And soon.
The answer to your question (Can Art Save Lives?) is YES! We need to encourage all forms of expression in response to our goverment’s policies, including the visual (painting, video, cinema), performing and literary arts. It’s the ONLY way we can change the big things, as we have learned in other “movements”–civil rights, Vietnam, etc.
‘Dare’ is the operative word here isn’t it. I imagine this exhibit has zero chance of being shown here in the US. Wish it would but I think a snowball has more of a chance in hell than this exhibit.
The article states the exhibit will shown through Europe. No doubt this will enforce image of the US greatly won’t it. And unsuspecting Americans will continue to wonder why ‘they’ hate us. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil form of democracy right.
The reviewer who wrote that it was strangely sexual even if in ironic context must be strangely odd to see this in these paintings. Or is my untutored eye missing something?
Botero has a big enough name that, if he wants, he wouldn’t have much trouble finding a gallery to exhibit the paintings. (Which is not to say that I like his work: there’s a twenty-foot tall Botero sculpture of a couple in the performing arts complex here that I particularly despise.)
If he does bring the paintings to the US–and my guess is that he will–it’ll be interesting.
I don’t know about saving lives, but looking at those paintings shortened mine.
Er, thanks, Sue!
Powerful images. Even though they are so puffy.
I think a number of artists, in the US and elsewhere, have tried to address this and other issues, but for a time they were threatened out of showings. Remember the gallery operator in SF who was punched in the face, and had her jaw broken, because someone in her studio had agreed to show a painting of… I don’t recall if it was Abu Ghraib, but something similar. She closed up shop completely, because of that and other threats. Other galleries and showings also were threatened, and sometimes the ‘offending’ art removed.
Freakiest thing for me was seeing people, including one female former friend, who I thought were “normal” Republicans, laughing and practically salivating with joy at the news that someone had assaulted this woman over the painting. “Taught her a lesson”.
So, this guy just maybe might have some trouble finding a gallery. Or maybe the climate has changed enough, and the war unpopular enough now for things to have changed. Let’s hope
Nanette, i can’t stop laughing. Puffy. Oh god. an art reviewer says: the images “emanate a strange sensuality.” Oh i love it. .. i really do.
Sobering story you tell. I don’t remember that incident. Yeah, the wingers would go all out — and Rush/O’Reilly/et al would be spitting saliva 24/7 over such a show.
LOL, well they are puffy. They remind me of the Michelin man, actually. Am not sure about the sensuality…
Here is an article about the woman in SF… pretty bad stuff: Attacked for art, S.F. gallery closes
It’s funny, I’ve always had a problem with Botero’s “puffy” figures, too, but in this case I think they really work, exactly because they seem so out of place in an Iraqi context. It’s like you’re seeing beloved Peanuts characters getting sexually humiliated and tortured. The message I get: if it can happen to Botero’s Titian-fed nudes, it could easily happen to me, too. No one is safe.
Another amazing feat: when’s the last time you thought a nude in a painting looked vulnerable? Bravo, Botero! This may be his greatest work ever.
that’s just my opinion.
his works remind me of many other South and Central American painters … there’s a cultural influence there that we’re not accustomed to in our North American and European art, so it may bridle our nerves a bit to look at his round, almost boneless human bodies.
At least (!) he’s addressed the horror. In his own way, of course. But at least he did it. It should be a huge attraction, I would think, at the gallery in Rome.
That’s just my opinion which I have always held towards his work. His intentions and the good they will do are laudatory. I don’t want to sound too harsh. Here’s a NYT slide show for those who DO like his work:
http://tinyurl.com/cf4hw
I’ve never been a fan of his style but I’m really glad he did this series. I hope it shows everywhere.
It’s very attractive and highly readable … i.e., it’s not like too many irritating bumperstickers where it’s impossible to read unless your nose is up against it.
Here’s where I got it:
http://www.ancestralspirits.com/
I just sent them an e-mail to find out if they have an image of the bumpersticker, and to find out how someone could order it.
deeply humiliating. I wish it would have the same effect on all Americans.
which will be greatly appreciated by all who love that person.
I don’t think it is likely that the exhibit will be seen in the US, nor would it be safe to do so, as it would endanger both exhibitors and art.
Remember that the Abu Ghraib whistleblower and his family have had to go into hiding, so many death threats have they received, while Lynndie England has fan sites and the others get candlelight vigils.
Rick Sanchez has been promoted, Alberto Gonzales is now the Attorney General, and the official US “report” on Abu Ghraib compared it to a popular comedy movie.
As mentioned in a human rights report yesterday, Abu Ghraib is only the tip of the iceberg, and reflects a longstanding US policy that enjoys wide bipartisan and public support.
His work will never reach that stature.
Here is a link to a picture of Picasso’s Guernica, for those who want to check it out. I have seen this work in person, and it is powerful.
I’m so glad you added that link to this story.
Botero makes some of us in the BooRoom uncomfortable. We focus on the weight of the figures to displace our discomfort at being brought face-to-face with the travesty committed in the name of our country at Abu Ghraib.
Should these painting be displayed in the US, we can predict what will happen.
Someone will deface them.
Someone will accuse Botero of being a communist.
Someone will belittle him as not a “real” artist.
Someone will be outraged by the crass nudity.
Someone will liken the pictures to pornography.
Someone will accuse the gallery on being un-American.
No one will say a word about the fact that the pictures retell the truth of a shameful moment in our history. America tortured prisoners.
We defaced our Nation.
We behaved like Stalinists.
We wonder when was the “real” America lost.
We should be outraged at the prisoner’s humiliation when photographed nude.
The torturers, at best, engaged in pornographic behaviors.
Once upon a time torture was un-American. That is a fairy tale now.
I think the pictures are powerful, and they make me ashamed to be an American because this country was betrayed by my fellow Americans, by her own sons and daughters, by my brothers and sisters, in the prisons of Iraq and Afghanistan.