Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Is there any other series like this one, in your work that has so consumed you?
Well I doubt it.
I was very impressed by
the violence in my country.
and the problem we have with drugs, etcetera
and I did a series of paintings and drawings
that are now in the National Museum in Bogotá.
The subject of Abu Ghraib, it was something
that came to me because I was full of rage
by the hypocrisy of the Bush government
that was torturing the Iraqis and the same people
that Saddam Hussein used to torture.
You see it was something that shocked
the whole world.
And I was really angry about this thing and
finally one day I started to
visualize what was happening there,
doing as much sketches than I did drawings
and paintings. And for fourteen months
I did this all the time
and it became like an obsession.
And it was the same time, it's sort of like, it
therapy because the more I paint
and the more I, the more I was calm
at the end of the city like I was kind of
calm with myself and with everything
but it was like therapy because
I was full of poison and rage
but that's, that happened.
Second question: This is an easy one, how many works are in the Abu Ghraib series? Is 89 the last one?
Well, yes. Well you know the whole series is over 80.
There are 56 here
and I donated 14 to
the American University in Washington DC.
That also was very kind
to buy me to do the exhibitions
and for that I appreciate them very much
because as I said before it's also of use
for institution in America.
And then I gave this
and because I've actually
I let it stay because you know,
when you do a city like this
there are things that are less good
and you have to have kind of a selection.
That isn't--some places like a studio but they are not,
I don't have intentions to show them.
Because I'm selling these things first
for the Berkeley University and then
the rest I sell it to the other reservations
and the rest is done by studio.
And you're just going to keep them?
it won't be while they're here.
Now that you've had a chance to walk through the show and see the paintings and drawings again together
five years after you started the series, what kind of reaction do you have from seeing the work together now?
Well, you know it was...
Well, first of all I must say
that the building was very present,
very powerful, very dramatic.
It was like it had been done to this kind
of exhibition that is dramatic.
You know when I came in,
when I came in I had the idea
I was walking around the ages of Piranesi.
The famous artist in
in 18th century Italy
that did the prisons.
You know, it was all this volumes
coming in and out and the spaces.
But you know, and then
I hold the paintings, they blend so well
with the color of the walls
and the color of the cement
of everything, the floors.
They're really in the right atmosphere.
Now, final question: You know just that the last three paintings are a litlle different than the others,
the palette is lighter
Excuse me, say again
the colors of the last three paintings are a little different, the palette is a little lighter
And so I'm wondering if that was a conscious decision or if that just, you're aware of that and maybe why?
Well I was aware.
You know, the things that I
look at, at all these spaces
I said perhaps I am
taking these dark colors
in order to create drama.
How about if I do
paintings that have the same drama
full of light.
And it's sort of like a challenge
to do the same drama
with light colors.
And that's why I did these
three or four paintings,
the last ones, with a pallete
that will be more appropriate
to more
pleasant subjects.
But I must say that
the paintings came as dramatic
as the others.
Oh, that's really interesting.
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much, thank you.