Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Botero Does Abu Ghraib

What do Botero's pudgy, comic figures have to do with Abu Ghraib? The 50 or so paintings and drawings he did on the subject were exhibited last year in Italy and Germany. They're on display now at the Marlborough Gallery in New York. Bloomberg reports:

In a couple of canvases, the bulbous figures appear in the mournfully familiar pyramid of naked, hooded bodies on a spotless cellblock floor, hands and feet shackled by rope bracelets. In several works that isolate one or two inmates in ignominious positions, flesh bursts out of pink, red or green bra and panties or diapers.

Other canvases depict men being sodomized with a broken stick, suffering a rain of urine or cowering before green attack dogs that are combination wolf, bull and stegosaurus.


You can see 25 of the paintings and drawings here.

No comments: