The Baroque World of Fernando Botero

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Exhibition Themes

 

Fernando Botero (b. 1932) is a painter, sculptor, and draftsman who depicts the comedy of human life – moving or wry, baroque in expression, sometimes with a mocking observation, sometimes with a deep, elementary emotion. Working in a broad range of media, Botero has created a world of his own, at once accessible and enigmatic, with a particular blend of violence and beauty. Botero has spent most of his years as an artist away from his native country, Colombia, but his art has maintained an uninterrupted link to Latin America.

The Baroque World of Fernando Botero presents a selection of the best works from various stages in his development as an artist, with occasional “flashbacks” to the early works of the 1950s, when Botero devised images of children that resembled giant dolls with frightening expressions.  Here his struggle to define his own style is still evident. In 1957 he painted “Still Life with a Mandolin,” enlarging the volume of the musical instrument in a manner that we now identify with Botero’s style. He continued in this vein, painting a figure of a young girl inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” This painting was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art and soon after, museum curators the world over followed suit. 

The exhibition follows Botero in his extensive studies of the history of European art. In Spain he was particularly entranced by Velázquez's portraits of the Spanish royal family in their elaborate court dresses. In France he studied Ingres, the nineteenth-century master of Neoclassical perfection in line, and Delacroix, the master of Romantic color. The teachings of Courbet concerned the complex concept of Realism. In Italy Botero would find his inspiration through artists from the Renaissance, including Uccello and Piero della Francesca. 

As a young boy he had already admired some contemporary artists, such as Pablo Picasso. He was now confronted with the paintings and sculptures of Giacometti, who was in the habit of reducing his figures to an extreme slimness. These encounters were important for Botero’s development. He was inspired by European art, but not seduced. He turned his attention to Mexico, where the monumental murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco had a profound impact. Botero absorbed the dramatic self-portraits of Frida Kahlo and her idiosyncratic interpretation of Latin American folklore, and was intrigued by the mysteries of Pre-Columbian artifacts.

In fact, the key to understanding the work of Botero is to realize that his roots are in Medellín, and that his earliest artistic impressions were molded in a Colombian town close to the Andes Mountains. His first images drew upon the Spanish colonial baroque – the sumptuous decorations that flourish on the walls of every church in South America, with gaudy angels, tormented saints, the physical agony of Christ, and the pearly tears of the immaculate Virgin. The Spanish baroque, already a movement of extravagant richness, became in the hands of its Latin American followers a superior universe, which transformed church interiors into something like the Gates of Heaven – or Hell. While it remained remote from everyday life outside church walls, it also hovered uncomfortably close.

Latin American baroque imagery is reflected in Botero’s work when portraying himself as a small boy in the arms of Our Blessed Lady of Colombia, carrying a diminutive flag with the national colors, or in depictions of his mother as a widow, in her desperate struggle to survive with her three young children. Like his mother, the Madonna in the former work is weeping. These are key works in the art of Fernando Botero, connecting his own past with the present of his homeland, Colombia. But Botero can be even more explicit. He presents shocking images of terror and violence, referring to the political instability, the attacks, the kidnappings, and the torture prevalent in his country. These paintings should give pause to those whose criticism of his work centers on the corpulence of his ladies.

Another important theme illustrated in the exhibition is the pomposity and misery of contemporary life in Latin America, including the pretentious affectation of presidents and first ladies as observed by Botero’s satirical eye. Also represented is the glitter and the glory of the corrida – the bullfight – another remnant of Spanish colonial history. Yet, Botero does not avoid the “hour of truth” – the death of a famous torero. The exhibition also presents a section on everyday life in South America: women observed in the intimacy of their boudoir, street scenes, dance halls, and the suggestion of houses of ill repute.

In a quiet picnic scene, Botero is capable of introducing a hint of menace, the foreboding of an impending disaster. Even in his still-life paintings, Botero creates a sense of uneasiness which is difficult to define: flies hover around pineapples, creating a putrid atmosphere; worms eat away a large pear, subverting its ripeness; and the sensuous modeling of a chocolate cake transforms it into a sinful object. 

Botero’s superb craftsmanship may be most evident in his drawings, especially those executed in pastel. His pastels have a thoroughly finished look and a richness of color and structure rarely seen in modern art, and have been compared to the master drawings of Ingres, as well as the Vollard Suite and early etchings by Picasso.

Botero also found the opportunity to convert his ideas into bronze and marble sculpture, which have become a seminal element in his oeuvre. His monumental bronzes were seen by perplexed strollers along the Champs Elysées in Paris, in front of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, and along Park Avenue in New York. The large figures transform their surroundings into a world of fantasy, as seen in Venice where his bronzes adorned the squares along the Grand Canal, or when his sensuous nudes were mirrored in the reflecting pools in front of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. This exhibition will include a selection of recent sculptures never before shown in North America.

The exhibition will be presented in eight sections that correspond to the themes described above. Drawn from the collection of the artist and assembled over the last fifty years, the show includes favorite works that Botero was unable to part with, as well as pieces reacquired years after they left his possession. Many have never before been exhibited in public. Thus, this exhibition provides a long overdue opportunity to investigate the complex workings of this talented artist not only by viewing some of his most renowned masterpieces, but also by studying his most personal works of art.

This exhibition is organized and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia.

The Baroque World of Fernando Botero is sponsored by:

Hispanidad | La Casita Patio Café | Univision

For information on promotional and sponsorship opportunities, contact Scott Penner, FAC Director of Development:
719.477.4344 | spenner@csfineartscenter.org

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