BOTERO AT BERKELEY: Art and Violence

Three UC Berkeley professors, Francine Masiello, Tom Laqueur, and T.J. Clark, place Fernando Botero’s “Abu Ghraib” series in a historical and artistic context.

What can a painting do that a photograph cannot? History professor Tom Laqueur opened the panel discussion “Art and Violence” with this rich question. The event brought together three professors and a large, animated audience just across the hall from the topic of the day: Fernando Botero’s “Abu Ghraib” series of paintings and drawings which is now on exhibit in UC Berkeley’s Doe Library. Though the series toured widely throughout Europe, it has appeared only once in the United States. The Berkeley exhibit marks the first time it has appeared in a public institution in this country.