The artworld and the world of works of art
pp. 265-285
in: Ernesto Carafoli, Gian Antonio Danieli, Giuseppe Longo (eds), The two cultures, Berlin, Springer, 2009Abstract
On 18 October 2006, I entered the Marlborough Gallery in New York for the official opening of Fernando Botero's exhibition on Abu Grahib. I visited the exhibition with a friend of mine, the painter Valerio Adami, and with his wife Camilla, a painter as well. Valerio talked to me about the way Botero draws hands and animals, and later introduced me to him. In wandering around the Gallery, I then ran into Arthur C. Danto and his wife. Danto is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Art at Columbia University and reviewed Botero's exhibition in a long article, titled "The Body in Pain", which was published by The Nation on 27 November. I remember how all of Valerio's and Camilla's remarks, and Danto's article, echoed within my mind when I visited again Botero's exhibition, this time in Berkeley, where in the meantime it was moved.