The series of paintings done by Colombian artist Fernando Botero based on the Abu Ghraib photographs may become part of the permanent collection of the University of California, Berkeley, according to news sources. UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau has said that the university and the artist "have a gentleman's agreement" pending mutually agreeable conditions, and has said that he was impressed by the work's "emotional impact and technical brilliance."
Experts estimate the gift to be worth between $10 million and $15 million. Botero has said that he would never sell the paintings, and has turned down an offer from a German museum to build a wing to house the collection.
There's a lesson in marketing there somewhere for all artists. And also a lesson on the power of representational visual art to drive home a point - a political point in this case - by using the narrative powers of representational art to underscore an issue.
These images, in a sense, were already part of our visual art scene. After all, it was the photographs upon which they are based that exploded into our collective eyes when they were first released.
By basing his works on them, Botero skilfully recognized that in the 21st century painting is still king, and lifting an image from a photograph to create a painting still "elevates" that image to a higher fine arts realm in the minds of many people.
They're no longer just photos in our computer screens and newspapers; they're now fine art. And it also brought Botero back into the fine arts limelight and contemporary dialogue and away from fat people paintings.
It sounds like Birgeneau has just written to Botero and nothing has been heard back from the wily Colombian.
Which gives me an idea.
I think that the best place for these paintings is not Left Wing Nut U in California, but right here in Washington, DC.
And not as part of the permanent collection of any of our great DC area museums, most of which already have Boteros in their collection, but as part of the permanent collection of the Pentagon.
As many of the people who have taken the free Pentagon tour know, the building has a really impressive art collection on its walls. As one would expect, it is mostly military subjects and historical paintings.
Article comments
1 - Muhamamd Kurdi
thanks for Botero's work that painted in abu ghriab in the deep of my heart i say it is a very very meaningful painting that express all iraqi prisons especially in baghdad
2 - RRLedford
These pictures belong in the WHITE HOUSE on PERMANENT DISPLAY. Save one for each of them in their cells too =>"W" Bush, Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, John Yoo, ... all the war criminals in the chain of command.
Now that the Torture Memos have seen the light of day, the pure B.S. of this posting, which parrots the fabricated imaginary story of how a “few bad apples” didn’t get enough proper training, and crossed the line, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH….. can now be flushed. This line of B.S. has been floating around in the toilet bowel for far too long, fully obscuring the real load of crap at the bottom. Well, that real load has now finally been revealed in all its ugly, brutal, criminal glory - that the entire chain of command from “W” Bush straight down the line fully knew, authorized, promoted and understood that they could and would diabolically implement a meticulously orchestrate a scientifically designed program of systematic CRIMINAL TORTURE. The fall guy bad apples are all rotting in jail for their deeds (deserved punishment), but the REAL CRIMINALS face no charges and maintain they are innocent. No doubt the complete erosion of the concept of “Rule of Law” accomplished under the Bush regime, and continuing under Obama’s watch will ensure that these War Criminals are never brought to justice. Certainly there will not be sufficient public outcry to ever bring the full weight of justice down on those most culpable for this most depraved and barbaric behavior.
Meanwhile the U.S. Empire’s accelerating trajectory toward the dark side continues. Drones are such cleaner tools for brutalizing the innocent civilians of Pakistan (no pictures either). I’s a new regime, it’s the “GOOD WAR”, it’s OBAMA now, but the war crimes continue. He gave us such hope, now he treats us like dope. Perhaps we are.