Perspectives

Art out of Abu Ghraib

Collection by Fernando Botero makes its U.S. debut

By Robert Nathan Eberhart
From the February 2007 Print Edition

            In late January, 23 paintings by famed Colombian artist Fernando Botero depicting the torture of Iraqi prisoners at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad made their debut to American audiences at UC Berkeley’s Doe Library.

            Because of the incidents at the prison, the Department of Defense removed 17 soldiers and officers from duty, seven of the soldiers were court-martialed, dishonorably discharged, and sentenced to federal prison. 

The stark, visually arresting images depict Iraqi prisoners being beaten by American guards, being strung up, made to wear women’s lingerie and other various forms of abuse. Despite Botero’s long history of social and political commentary interwoven in his images, this collection represents a dramatic departure from decades of placid, mildly comic depictions of fat, exaggerated forms.

            Botero explains that the allegations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib by the American soldiers so upset him that he felt compelled to dramatically change his subject matter and embark on a large series of bleak, violent images. 

“I, like everyone else, was shocked by the barbarity, especially because the United States is supposed to be this model of compassion,” he told the Associated Press in an interview from his studio in Paris.

            One image shows a naked man strung up to a series of bars, a hood covering his face; the only color in the picture is of a torrent of red blood spewing from his neck and chest. Another depicts two naked, stocky men behind bars dressed in brightly colored women’s lingerie, hands bound behind their backs. 

The collection has been exhibited for the past several years in major museums throughout Europe and will make its American debut in Berkeley, being sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies.

Botero is widely considered the best-known living Latin American artist and is best known for his bloated images of humans and natural features, which define his work. His distinctive round, smooth images are purposefully mocking and convey social and political subtexts. 

According to his Web site, www.boteroinvenice.com, Botero’s primary artistic influences are European masters such as Goya, Vélasquez, Titian, and Tintoretto as well as Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera.

            Authority figures as well as symbols of status and power appear regularly in his work depicted in his grossly exaggerated manner and come across as humorous and contemptible. The satiric comic appeal is a purposeful method used by Botero to convey his personal disdain for authority and class. An avowed leftist, he condemns “militarists and the morals and manners of Colombia’s bourgeoisie.” 

Botero said that his intent was to emblazon the images of Abu Ghraib on the consciousness of posterity, comparing his collection to Pablo Picasso’s rendering of the bombing of civilians in Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. “No one would have ever remembered the horrors of Guernica if not for the painting,” Botero said in an interview with the Associated Press.

The exhibition runs from January 29 through March 25 in Doe Memorial Library and is open to the public.

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