Wardens and Gatekeepers
Art explores the unthinkable.
Bad things happen. As artists, we too live in this world and often need to express our experience in pieces that contain actions and ideas even we may rather not think about, but which force their way into our consciousness and out through our work by virtue of their very existence.
Abu Ghraib 67, 2005
by Fernando Botero
Oil on canvas, 16 7/8 x 13 3/4 in., 43 x 35 cm
Marlborough Gallery
Some say that we have a responsibility to do so. However, the impulse and action of creation probably take place before considerations of the broader effect of the content reach the other side of the artist’s brain. Not so for curators, perhaps. In the case of Fernando Botero’s series, Abu Ghraib, museums in the US passed up the opportunity to present this body of work by a man who may well be today’s most recognizable and successful living artist. It may be that they felt their audience was not open to this departure from Botero’s usually pleasant subject matter.
To be honest, I was not certain that I was ready to view it either, but when Marlborough Gallery opened the exhibition October 17th, I was there. My decision was based on the fact that I admire Botero and love his work, and that if there is any artist I can trust to take me through subject matter as trying as this abuse of prisoners that took place in Iraq, he is the one. It was the right choice.
The paintings and drawings I viewed at the gallery that evening did not shock or repel me. They made me cry, helped me to feel where I had only before been able to think about these events. Unlike the jailers depicted, who acted as bad wardens to the prisoners that it was deemed necessary to keep under guard, Botero was a good gatekeeper, presenting this ugly episode in history in such a way as to make a strong, undeniable impression without subjecting his audience to undue harm.
It was a privilege to have a chance to see these images, and experience the events that inspired them through the vision of Fernando Botero.
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