Botero’s Abu Ghraib work in Berkeley, in Washington, D.C., in November

From Body Impolitic blog in the USA:

Reflections on Seeing Botero’s Images of Abu Ghraib

Laurie [Toby Edison] says:

I went to see Botero’s Abu Ghraib pictures last week at the Doe Library in Berkeley. …

I’ve also seen Zurbaran’s painting of St. Agatha with her breasts on a tray but because that’s religious art, it’s really about martyrdom and glory.

Goya’s war drawings now have the distancing of time.

Abu Ghraib is now.

Botero’s ability to make good art while expressing the horrors of the torture confounded and amazed me.

Botero’s Abu Ghraib paintings and drawings will be exhibited at the Doe Library, located at the University of California, Berkeley, through March 25th.

Jack Rasmussen, the Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C., announced on his web log that Botero’s paintings will be exhibited at the American University Museum from November 6th to December 30th, 2007.

Jack Rasmussen writes, that after 25 March in Berkeley, Botero’s works will

then travel to two venues in Europe (I won’t be there), before coming back here (where they belong).

Yes, Botero’s Abu Ghraib work definitely belongs in Washington, D.C., close to the instigators of the horrors depicted.

It is also good to see Botero in a US museum at last, after a private art gallery in New York City, and a library in Berkeley.

However, without taking anything away from the American University Museum as an institution, and from the courage of its people in displaying Botero’s, according to Bush and his slavish devotees “politically unwanted” art, this still means Botero’s Abu Ghraib work is not (yet?) exhibited in any of the big prestige museums in the USA.

There, top level people do not seem to have the courage (yet?) of exhibiting Botero, who was so very welcome at prestigious places in the US art world as long his work was considered only mildly critical of the powers that be.

Interview with ex US Abu Ghraib soldier: here.

Related articles

• Fernando Botero’s view of Abu Ghraib atrocities
• Fernando Botero’s Abu Ghraib
• Iraq closes infamous prison in Abu Ghraib
• Iraq Says Abu Ghraib Prison Is Closed

• Botero Sees the World’s True Heavies at Abu Ghraib (paintingsframe.wordpress.com)
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Fernando Botero (huffingtonpost.com)
• Military contractor sues Abu Ghraib detainees for legal expenses (jurist.org)
• Parque Botero (colombianwinds.wordpress.com)
• Fernando Botero (paintingsframe2000.wordpress.com)
• US contractor accused of Abu Ghraib human rights violations suing former prisoners (rt.com)