Fernando Botero's Abu Ghraib

San Francisco's non-profit Meridian Gallery will host an exhibit Art of Democracy: War and Empire, from September 4 to November 4, 2008 where more than 40 artists will be featured. Among the artists represented will be Colombian master Fernando Botero who will present several pieces from his Abu Ghraib collection of paintings and drawings depicting Iraqi prisoners being tortured in Abu Ghraib prison at the hands of American servicemen and women. Botero is mostly known for his paintings of human figures of very exagerated proportions and corpulence.



The first painting in the gallery is one of the pictures that will be exhibited at the Meridian and I decided to add a few more images of Abu Ghraib because I really admire Botero's work and his willingness to tackle a controversial subject through his art.





























Meridian Gallery





images via ionarts, photobucket and

art-for-a-change

The Many Incarnations of the Mona Lisa - From Dali to Banksy

Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is arguably the world's most famous and celebrated work of art and as such, it has been celebrated--and ridiculed--by world famous artists including Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Rene Magritte, Fernando Botero, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Banksy.



A reader who signed in as "Anonymous" left the links for the three awesome Banksy images in a comment. Also, the clever and fun version of the Mona Lisa painted with peanut butter and jelly by Vik Muniz was a contribution from another (the same?) Anonymous. Thank you so much anonymous contributors! Check out the various renditions of the famous Gioconda below.





Banksy



Fernando Botero, Mona Lisa, 1963





Salvador Dali, Self Portrait as Mona Lisa about 1964





Andy Warhol, Four Mona Lisas, 1963





Mao Lisa Leonardo Bezzola, 1976





George and Mona in the Baths of Coloma Robert Arneson, 1976





Figure 7 Jasper Johns, 1968





Thirty Are Better Than One Andy Warhol, 1963





David Teixidor Buenaventura, Gioconda, 2001





Kazimir Malevich, Composition with Mona Lisa, 1914





Erro, American Project, 1958





Yasumasa Morimura Mona Lisa in the Third Place, 1998





Rene Magritte, La Gioconda, 1960





Daniel Spoerri, Use of Rembrandt as Ironing Board (Marcel Duchamp),1964





Andy Warhol, Mona Lisa, 1963





Fernando Botero, Mona Lisa, Age Twelve, 1959





Alfred Gescheidt, Mamary Lisa, 1972





Fernand Leger, Mona Lisa with Keys, 1930



Pneumonia Lisa Robert Rauschenberg, 1982





William T. Wiley, Mona Lisa Wiped Out, 1967





Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., readymade, 1919





Robert Rauschenberg, Mona Lisa, 1982



Jean Michel Basquiat, Mona Lisa, n/a



Sophie Matisse, Mona Lisa, 1997





Miran Fukuda, Resting Model, 1999





Andy Warhol, Mona Lisa (Two Times), 1980





Keith Haring, Apocalipse 7, 1988



Banksy





"Mona Lisa Mujaheddin" by Banksy





"Peanut Butter and Jelly Mona Lisa" by Vik Muniz

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We are happy to announce that "The Many Incarnations of the Mona Lisa" post was published by British newspaper Telegraph.UK. here. Thanks a lot to the "Anonymous" contributors. Keep 'em coming!