Fernando Botero Tackles US Abuses in New Work

I am not even going to comment on this lest I launch into an uncontrollable rant.

Columbian Painter Fernando Botero has become one of the first artists to use the horrors of Abu Ghraib as inspiration for his work. In a series of 50 oil paintings and sketches, which is to be exhibited in Rome on June 16, Botero graphically depicts the prisoner abuses at the Iraqi prison.

Beatings, torture and humiliation are not exactly a pleasant subject matter. But painter Fernando Botero sees them as vitally important. Generally known for chubby versions of Old Masters, the 73-year-old artist was so shocked by the prisoner abuse scandals that he started work on a series of pictures to depict the humiliations which Iraqi prisoners suffered at the hands of American soldiers. "I, like everyone else, was shocked by the barbarity, especially because the United States is supposed to be this model of compassion," he recently told the Associated Press.

The European left at their hypocritical best. Have at this one folks, my blood pressure is already 20 points too high.