classic matador,

wield the brush like a red cape

before the bull's eyes.

he awaits the coming charge

coolly, challenging the beast~

I really like Botero. the thing about his people is that they look like little weebles, you know... the weebles that wobble but they don't fall down. : )

butcher's table is perhaps my favorite but I've included many of my favorite botero pieces.

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"1969 Fernando Botero, surrealist Colombian painter, created "The Butcher's Table," a pig's head laughing at his own slaughter.

(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.W12)"

http://timelines.ws/20thcent/1969.HTML

Personally, this painting makes me think of the GOP.

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for those who are unaware, botero is a great fan of bull-fighting and some sources say he went to bull-fighting school as a youngster, hence I have penned him in my tanka with that image. that choice doubles as a symbol of his challenge to the political power structures that be through his art.

http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=Fernando_Botero

this is a good read, by the way.

"Growing up he became a huge fan of bullfights, which is a popular sport in Colombia, stemming from Spanish settlers. From the age of 13, he began to paint scenes of bullfights, selling them in front of the arena for 5 pesos, and later, as a professional, he spent nearly 2 years painting only that."

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Botero

"Botero was born in Medellín, whose Catholic churches still maintained the Baroque style. His upbringing was marked by isolation from the traditional art venues such as museums and other cultural infrastructures. her Colombian heritage thus informs his art.

In early 2004, Botero donated a series of 23 oil paintings and 27 drawings depicting different elements of the country's longlasting violence, created between 1999 and 2004, to the National Museum of Colombia, where they were first publicly displayed between May 4 and June 11.

In early 2005, Botero revealed a series of 50 paintings that graphically represent the controversial Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal, expressing the rage and shock that the incident provoked in the artist. The works will be initially presented in expositions throughout Europe. Botero doesn't plan to sell the paintings, but instead intends to donate them to museums as a reminder of the events depicted within."

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http://www.kolahstudio.com/underground/?p=69

"....Now, almost as if he were making up for a past omission, Mr. Botero says he has put his heart and soul into creating works that touch on practically every violent aspect of the war: its kidnappings and massacres, funeral processions, car bombs and death-squad fighters."You read about these things, this violence, and this produces an impact on you," he explained. "As an artist you want to reflect on this reality." ..."

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Fernando_Botero-Abu_Ghraib.html

"...In fact, Botero has made paintings throughout his career that address issues such as political oppression, social injustice, and suffering. In 1994 Botero treated the civil strife in Colombia in a series of works that depict the bloodshed and pain experienced during that country's guerrilla war.

Consequently, this series of work based on Abu Ghraib represents at this stage of his career his strongest statement of outrage against human violence. This provocative and profound series was first exhibited as part of a larger exhibition at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome in 2005. It then traveled to the Würth Museum in Künzelsau, Germany and to the Pinacoteca in Athens, Greece. Marlborough's exhibition in October will be the first time the Abu Ghraib works are to be seen in the Unites States. Prestel will publish a book with a text by the Associate Managing Editor of Art in America, David Ebony, devoted solely to this series of work. Botero's style is distinctly his own and highly original. His art, both in painting and sculpture, strikes a universal chord that goes beyond regional tastes and temporal values and reaches a fundamental feeling in people all over the world..."