Botero's Inconvenient Truth

Fernando Botero’s birth in Medellín, Colombia has led to his mature style of portraiture. According to the artist himself he is “"the most Colombian of Colombian artists." His art reflects the turbulent times in his country when cartels in charge of the illegal drug trades sabotaged the economy and the people within this South American country. Because of his love for his homeland, Botero was emotionally connected to the ruthless war, in which cartels kidnapped or murdered government officials, politicians, law enforcement members, journalists, relatives of officials, or just innocent bystanders. Currently, Botero’s work about Abu Ghraib is also intended to raise awareness and reveal the horrors of prisoner torture and abuse in American prisons in Iraq. Botero’s portraiture reflects his desire to bring awareness on issues people would much rather ignore.
Botero’s childhood and adolescence in Colombia was a time in which his future artistic endeavors were greatly influenced. According to Botero, “The artist’s first twenty years have an enormous visual repercussion on the evolution of his work. It appears that nostalgia for certain moments of his life will come to the fore. One always paints what is best known, and it is rooted in childhood and adolescence. That is the world I paint. I have done nothing else. I have lived in the United States for many years and have never painted a North American subject. I have also spent time in France and Italy, and it has not occurred to me to paint a European landscape or subject” (Baroque, 23). Although Botero left Colombia in 1952 to travel, paint, and live in Europe, he still makes it clear that he is a Colombian artist. He traveled from Barcelona to Florence, Florence to Mexico, and Mexico to New York. Even though these environments influenced his style, he remained greatly influenced by his Colombian spirit.
When a viewer looks at Botero’s artwork the most distinct characteristic of his works is his use of large proportions. One may be puzzled and perplexed by this choice to distort sizes and shapes of subjects, making them appear less socially acceptable. According to Botero, “the purpose of my style is to exalt the volumes, not only because that enlarges the area in which I can apply more color, but also because it conveys the sensuality, the exuberance, the profusion of the form I am searching for.” These pudgy characters continue into his gruesome images creating a puzzling juxtaposition.
Although Botero was not living in Colombia at the time of the extreme drug guerilla warfare and political turmoil (mainly during the 1990’s and on), reports of the atrocities came from Botero’s family and friends that were back in his homeland. Botero’s connection (through his childhood and adolescence) to Colombia allowed him to translate his emotions in striking images that confront the viewer with the realities of a violent society. In his paintings, there is “no glorification or heroism but just brutal atrocities in the open air, executions that had nothing to do with justice…acts of violence only to impose terror and fear on innocent citizens who have to witness violent death as a frequent occurrence in daily life”
After looking at some of Botero’s gruesome images, one may ask: what would motivate an artist to capture such horrific scenes? As a Colombian artist, Botero recognizes that there are two sides, or faces, to his homeland—one is the beautiful friendly side, and the other is the terrible, ugly side of violence—both of which must be shown (4). According to Botero, “in view of the magnitude of drama that Colombia is experiencing, there came a moment that I felt a moral obligation to leave a testimony about such an irrational period of our history.” He also has said, “I believe that to do something for our country, you do not have to wait until things get better: instead, there is an urgent need to do something that might perhaps speed up the process of returning to normality….to make a gesture for your country, you should do it now, at this moment, when it most needs it.”
Botero’s current works are in response to 2003 revelations the U.S. guards mistreated Iraqi prisoners in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad (5). The set of works is entitled Abu Ghraib and contains numerous untitled gruesome and harsh images of man’s inhumanity to other men. These images, once again, provide the viewer with an inconvenient truth about man’s treatment of fellow men.
Botero’s artwork, especially his portraiture, made to reflect turbulent times in his homeland, speaks volumes about his character as an artist. Botero captured these gruesome images in order to stop the viewers in their tracks, and hit them with the harsh reality of either the warfare in Colombia or the torture in American prisons for Iraqis. Botero provides the viewers with an inconvenient truth in order to capture these times so people can learn from their mistakes and cause stop victimization of the innocent. (image above from: http://prisonphotography.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/fernando-botero.jpg)


Blog Questions (Answer as few or as many as you want)

1. What kind of emotions did you experience when looking at the some of Botero’s gruesome paintings? How did Botero’s juxtaposition between pudgy characters and gruesome images impact you? Do you think he painted these scenes for shock value or in order to record his country’s history?

2. Botero has said: “I am the most Colombian of Colombian artists.” Do you still think Botero is a Colombian artist even though he has not been back to Colombia since the 1960s? What does Botero’s decision to not sell any of the tragic images from his country tell you about his character?

3. What do Botero's paintings about the Abu Ghraib prison tell you about Botero's character? Also look up a news story about the torture in the Abu Ghraib prison and find one of Botero’s paintings that exhibits these heinous acts. After, give a summary of the article and your opinion on the artwork you selected.

Olympia's Look

Betrayed, hurt, and lonely; Suzanne Manet’s life with Édouard Manet was anything but a fairytale. To portray this, Olympia’s Look by Susan Vreeland is set shortly after Édouard’s excruciating and sickening death from syphilis. Suzanne and her nephew look over Édouard’s paintings, this experience in itself could not be too pleasant for her. She was surrounded by lovely paintings of “the other women”, ones that her husband allegedly had affairs with. She was constantly battling her lack of trust in her husband --catching a model with a flirtatious note from Édouard didn’t help. Her pain was reflected in her own titles for some of Édouard’s masterpieces, including “Betrayal” and “Courtesan to half of Paris.” Although she had a reason to not trust her husband, she also appears to have struggled with her self esteem, scrutinizing a painting of herself, and gazing upon the painting of Olympia and desiring that same look of power that Olympia possesses and she lacks.

However, Suzanne’s underlying feelings for her husband are revealed in passages in Vreeland’s story. Reliving her time with Édouard, Suzanne thinks, “Would it have been any different if she hadn’t been the placid, tolerant Dutch wife wanting peace at any cost, turning a blind eye every time he burst into the apartment flushed and elated, passing it off as the joy he took in painting?” Although this passage doesn’t reinforce her love for Édouard it does exhibit Suzanne’s desire for his happiness. By not confronting him, it shows she cared for him and wanted his happiness, even at the cost of her own contentment. However, to say she was never happy with Édouard would be a lie, at the end of the story Suzanne makes a fire, and sits down in her late-husband’s chair; she relives the days of her happiness, saying, “A fine fire it was, full of satisfying crackles, just like the ones they had in the happy times in Brabant. She chuckled softly, remembering the funny, surprised look of Édouard’s face when the wind racing over the flat land had whisked his top hat on their wedding day and he went running down the dike road after it.” This story paints a picture of a content and happy couple, full of love and fondness for one another. Her longing to return to days like these reveals that Suzanne will always have a place for Édouard in her heart, even in the midst of unpleasant later memories.

Vreeland is an exceptional author using realistic facts and paintings to create a woman-Édouard Manet’s wife. Her interpretation of Suzanne’s character leads the reader into both the life of the wife and the famous painter. All the events that Suzanne experienced made her a hardened woman; however, a light shines through when she refers to Isabelle Lemonneir as Édouard’s collaborator. Although events of a husband having multiple affairs could scar a woman leading her to a life of depression and shame, at the end of the story Vreeland leads us to believe Suzanne will live a fulfilling life, with love in her heart for Édouard.

"Who is that Person" Annotated Bibliography

"Gustav Klimt: Mada Primavesi (1903-2000) (64.148)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. 01 February 2009 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/ho_64.148.htm

This online resource reveals who the young girl in Gustav Klimt’s painting entitled Mada Primavesi really was. The portrait’s title refers to the child’s name. Both the elegance of the name and the beauty of the ornate dress lead the viewer to believe that she was born into the upper class. Although the article did not state outright that she is a wealthy child, it states that her father was a banker and an industrialist and that her mother was an actress. This fact explains her sophisticated dress and ornate headpiece for a girl only nine years in age. This source comes from The Metropolitan Museum of Art and very clear and concise when providing information about Klimt’s 1912 portrait of Mada Primavesi.

“Gustav Klimt Landscapes.” Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. 2002. 01 February 2009 http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/klimt/klimt/bio.cfm.
This online source was very useful in giving an inside look on Klimt’s affect on art in his time (he lived from 1862 to 1918). Klimt’s works of art were usually very public, for example, he painted murals on very prominent buildings within cities. Being a figure in society’s eye, Klimt received a lot of criticism mostly for his realist and fantastical style before the 1900’s. The source leads me to believe that his mature style came only ten years before his death when he focused more on portraits (like that of Mada Primavesi). However, unlike his picture of Mada Primavesi many of his portraits were very erotic and also very controversial to the time.

Partch, Susanna. Gustav Klimt: Painter of Women. New York: Prestel-Verlag, 1994.
The pages of this book are not only filled with beautiful portraits, but also insight into the mastermind behind these works of art. Many of Klimt’s works were of women in the nude, sometimes portrayed erotically and other times in a serene and peaceful manner. Throughout his life Klimt was quite a womanizer, reportedly having affairs with many of his models, even while he maintained a steady relationship with Emilie Floge. He threw himself into his art and refused to marry Floge because he didn’t want anything to interfere with his painting. His works took many years, for example his portrait of Mada Primavesi took many pencil sketches before he was satisfied with the look of the painting. His final decision on the background gave the painting an innocent and decorative look to complement that of the nine year old Mada Primavesi.

"Children of the Screen"

There is no denying the fact that in the year 2009, Americans are surrounded by the media—television, video games, and the internet (to name a few). With such a prominent presence in our daily lives, television becomes part of our environment. In turn, the media has potential to influence who we are as people. In Hannah Baylon’s article “Children of the Screen” she makes the point that we are constantly pushing ourselves to the limit with the normal stresses of life, and when we do get time to ourselves we spend it in a brainless activity: infiltrating our brains with the media. Although many of Baylon’s arguments are extreme (she goes as far as saying American values of mindless entertainment “poisons our minds and souls”), I do agree that by living in a virtual reality we are limiting ourselves as humans.
Growing up, my family didn’t have more than three channels on our television (two of the three were Canadian channels). I grew up not really ever watching television and even now I scarcely watch television; however, in Baylon’s article she claims “the average American watches four hours of television a day.” To be honest, I cannot imagine ever watching four hours of television in one week let alone in one day! With that in mind, I would have to agree with Baylon’s argument that it cannot possibly good to fill our minds with four hours of mindlessness. Just as a house plant or a prokaryotic cell needs the correct environment to thrive, humans also cannot thrive without an environment optimal for our growth. When your environment becomes saturated with stagnant media it smothers our zest for life and our potential to accomplish great things. But on the flip side, we do need time to recover from all the stresses of life. Even though I hardly watch television I do enjoy sitting on the couch after a stressful day and just relaxing for an hour. But because I enjoy doing nothing for a short period of time it does not mean I have poisoned my soul, it just means I need a break from the pressures of life.
With the diversity in the human race, an example of my life does not accurately reflect the population. I am aware that there are parents out there who allow their children to watch television and play video games for as long as they please. I also am aware that there are people in America that instead of going to college or getting a job are content with propping their bodies in front of a television. I have also witnessed many girls that have seen far too many chick flicks and believe their perfect prince-charming is coming to sweep them off their feet. In cases like these I would definitely say the overexposure to the media can be very detrimental to a person’s existence. Instead of thinking for themselves they merely allow the world to pass by without actively taking a step to join in. Living in this virtual reality separates people from the reality we actually are living and breathing in. Not only does it create passive people, as reflected in Baylon’s picture accompanying the article, it keeps humans from living up to their true potential.

Dorian Gray: The False Façade of Beauty

A famous biblical quote (found in Matthew 8:36) acts as a vivid theme in the film The Picture of Dorian Gray: “what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul.” The protagonist in the story, Dorian Gray, makes the wish to trade his soul for his youth, after he views the splendor and purity in his portrait, painted by Basil Hallward. As Gray keeps his childlike face, the portrait slowly warps, revealing his sin, age, and true soul. During the film, innocent blood is often shed, staining Gray’s hands, one example is Gray’s fiancée’s suicide due to rejection. Gray plummets into a downward spiral of hedonism, including drinking and lustful actions. Even as rumors spread about Gray’s actions, his youthfulness and innocent beauty remains untouched by age or sin. However, the painting of Gray becomes so grotesque that he locks it away—hiding his true soul from the world.

The theme is masterfully woven throughout the film: Gray’s wish was to keep his beauty; however, even though he maintains false façade of splendor, underneath his true soul is rotten to the core (as exhibited in the painting). With this knowledge haunting him, Gray reveals the painting to the original artist, Hallward, but by doing so he knows he may lose the one woman he truly cares about, Hallward’s niece Gladys. Hallward is so shocked by the portrait he tells Gray that if only Gladys could see the true man Gray is she would not love him, rather risking losing the woman he loves, Gray kills Hallward. Gray’s love for Gladys leads them to be engaged; however, he knows she doesn’t know the man he has become. Gray does what he calls his only good deed, and informs Gladys that he is not good enough for her love. After doing this, Gray gazes into the eyes of the painting and sees a faint light; however, he knows even if he changes his way of life his soul would still be staring at him revealing all the horrors of his life. He stabs the heart of the painting and as a result, his life is also taken. As he lies on the floor, dead, Gladys and friends finally see Gray as the man that was masked over the years—the aged, sinful man that he truly was.

The theme of hiding true evil with a façade of beauty presents irony when Gray attempts to physically hide the portrait in his childhood schoolroom. This irony is exhibited after Sybil’s suicide and the picture begins to deform. The dimly lit room playroom is full of toys and books from his youth. As the shrouded picture is brought into the room, the dark covering over the deformed picture contrasts the aerie toys and books that encompass the room. All the innocent symbols and memories from his childhood: a wooden horse, toy blocks, and a Little Boy Blue banner now became the companions for his dark soul. Although Gray physically hid his soul, he could not hide his true evilness. Later in the film he kills Hallward in this very room and wipes the blood off his hands with the Little Boy Blue banner. As Gray stands in solitude he looks forward to a life of eternal youth since the picture is now hidden; however, he is caught in an evil destiny that will eventually lead to his demise.

Who is that person?

The young girl in the twenty second portrait stands alone with a flowery bow tucked behind her ear. Her white dress gracefully falls slightly below her knees and a pink background provides a complement to the assorted pink, yellow, and orange flowers that create an empire waistline on the garment.
The colors and textures used by the artist create a scene of innocence. The white on the girl’s dress is often associated with purity. For example giving or receiving white roses is often meant to appreciate the innocence of a person. Also, the abundance of flowers in the scene reminds me of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in which the fair Ophelia is compared to a blooming flower. After the death of her father Ophelia sings song and hands out flowers even when her innocent mind is overwhelmed by the evils in the world. At a moments glance, this child represents the innocence and beauty of youth; however many clues lead me to believe otherwise.
The girl’s actually age seems to be masked by her ornate attire. She is dressed like a woman attending a formal party or dance; however, the girl’s age appears to be merely twelve or thirteen. Her figure is that of a child before the onset of puberty. She lacks the figure of a woman; her frail and petite body has few feminine curves. She is wearing a flowing dress that would be worn maybe to a fancy dinner by an older woman; however, the dress fits her petite body. Only a child of a wealthy status would have such a nice dress, which leads me to believe that she is a child to wealthy parents who would have a dress tailored to fit their young daughter.
The face of this girl is very refined and serene (not what you would expect from a child)—her eyes seem to stare through the world but not at it. It appears to me that her childhood was controlled and her youthful vigor was removed by her proper and wealthy parents. Her pale skin is an indication that she has been restricted and not allowed to play outside with other children. To me this picture represents a child of aristocratic parents; ones who forced their daughter into womanhood and therefore she missed out on how a girl’s childhood should be.
Looking at this picture, I believe it is in her room, the beautiful hand painted walls and carpeting reflect the wealth of her family. However, she is standing in the shadow of cats, birds, and a fish, which is intended to show what she has missed out. Her parents forced her to be the proper daughter--she took etiquette classes while all the other children played outside. All she wanted to do was run and play with kittens and birds; however, she was given a beautiful room and beautiful clothes and was shaped into the “perfect daughter.” The puddle at her feet shows what she really wanted and what she missed out on.
Standing alone in her room, she represents how easily children can be shaped by their parent’s desires. However, as one would imagine, a proper woman of whom her parents wanted her to be would be gracefully standing with her feet together; however, this girl has more of a stance of a tomboy--her legs are spread apart--which would be considered very unladylike. Her stance is the culmination of her confusion…is she a proper woman, or is she still the child she longs to be? Instead of reflecting the innocence of childhood, this portrait deeply explores the confusion of a lost girl prematurely forced into womanhood.