InBerkeley

Photo by Sibila Savage

When I saw an image of Fernando Botero’s Abu Ghraib 66 (above), I thought of Francisco Goya, the great Spanish painter who captured the brutality of the Napoleonic wars. You don’t, however, need to fly to Madrid’s Prado to see Botero’s work.

The Colombian artist’s Abu Ghraib series is going on show at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) this Wednesday. The 56 paintings and drawings in the series were shown to critical acclaim two years ago at the university’s Doe Library. Subsequent to the exhibition, Botero made a gift of the series to BAM/PFA, in recognition of Berkeley’s historic role in the free speech movement.

Botero painted the series after reading Sy Hersh’s expose of the Abu Ghraib abuses in the New Yorker in 2004. In an interview during the 2007 showing in Berkeley, Botero said, “What I wanted was to visualize the atmosphere described in the articles, to make visible what was invisible.” Botero will discuss his work with BAM/PFA’s Lawrence Rinder on Wednesday evening. The discussion is sold out but a recording will be available on the BAM/PFA site from Friday.

Update BAM/PFA has an exhibition, Material Witness, that uses works from its collection to show how artists have borne witness over the centuries. It includes works by Goya and Andy Warhol. Material Witness runs until December 20.

Lance Knobel Art