“The Baroque World ofFERNANDO BOTERO”
Organized and circulated by ART SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
Introduction: Botero’s Baroque
The works of Fernando Botero--paintings, drawings, and sculptures--may best be appreciated in the context of his Latin American background. Born in Medellín, Colombia on April 19, 1932, the son of a travelling salesman, Botero's future as an artist was uncertain. Although his talent for drawing was soon evident, the death of his father when the boy was only four years old restricted his early opportunities. As a young man, his artistic development was hindered by the reduced circumstances of his family, which limited Botero's ability to expand the scope of his experience.
There was no museum of fine arts in Medellín in those years. Fernando Botero found inspiration in the art of the Colonial Baroque, omnipresent in the churches and convents in his native town and its surroundings. He was further inspired by reading about modern artists such as Pablo Picasso, and avidly studied reproductions of his works. After participating in several group exhibitions, the young artist was given a prize at the Colombian Salon in the capital, Bogotá.The award enabled Botero to travel abroad. He began his European tour in Spain, and enrolled as a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. There he became acquainted with Diego Velázquez and other great artists of the Spanish Baroque. Subsequently he travelled to Florence,where he learned about and viewed firsthand the masterworks of the Italian Renaissance.
When Botero returned to Latin America, he devoted a period of time to study the works of contemporary Mexican artists. Then, in 1957, he painted his Still Life with Mandolin, the first work in the opulent style for which he is now famous. Botero discovered that by manipulating its proportions, the mandolin took on an entirely new and more voluminous dimension, richly sensual and baroque in aspect. This, then, became his controversial signature style.
It was not until 1961 thatFernando Botero began to receive recognition. That year, the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired his painting Mona Lisa, Age 12. Although then, as now, the merits of Botero's controversial style were a subject of heated dispute, today the work of Fernando Botero has come to be appreciated all over the world.
Citing Precedent:Evoking Tradition
In his early work Botero refers to his European masters; they were not his teachers at the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, but his great examplars, such as Diego Velázquez and Francisco Goya, in the collection of the Museo del Prado. In his paintings from the late fifties and early sixties, the art of Baroque portraiture is clearly influential. Velázquez had been the portrait painter of the Spanish Court. Kings, queens, princes, and princesses in formal attire were to be seen in the halls of the PradoMuseum, and Botero would go there daily to study their portraits. He was very impressed by the depictions of the Princess Infanta Margarita, with her rich hair style and her spectacular court dresses. These profound impressions are reflected in his early paintings, but they remain an element of inspiration, even in his later works.
Emblems of Faith: Latin American Colonial Baroque
The Colonial art that Fernando Botero saw as a young boy was mainly an art of religious themes, illustrated with biblical scenes taken from both the Old and the New Testament. Botero, too, turned to the Bible for inspiration, and made various representations of Adam and Eve, not only in painting, but – much later – also in sculpture. In addition, he chose to depict different episodes of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, although Botero has stated that he is not religious. But, he has said, religion is part of tradition in art, and religion in Latin America is part of the visual landscape.
The painting Our Lady of Colombia has religious and political connotations. The Virgin Mother carries a small boy, and is weeping for Colombia. The infant is not the image of Christ, but a child waving the national flag.
Fernando Botero has also portrayed many ecclesiastical authorities in Latin American society, such as cardinals and bishops. The writer, Mario Vargas Llosa, wrote an essay about Botero in which he observes: “Like his Renaissance masters, Botero has filled his pictures with clerics more for visual rather than spiritual reasons, and by so doing, he linked his work to those mentors and he expressed a world in which, in effect, as in the Italy of the City States, the Church was omnipresent.”
The Mind's Eye: Homage to His Masters
During his stay in Spain, both Velázquez and Francisco Goya were an inspiration for the young Fernando Botero. When he moved to Italy, he also became interested in artists of the Italian Renaissance, such as Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, and Masaccio, and was impressed by the quattrocento frescoes, sculptures, and decorations. Botero's experience of the Italian Baroque is reflected particularly in his choice of subject matter; he repeated the theme of The Rape of Europa by Titian in his own work, not only as a painting but also as a sculpture.
When Botero settled in Paris, his interest was oriented towards the French masters of the nineteenth century, such as Gustave Courbet, Ingres, and Eugène Delacroix. Ingres was the celebrated master of neo-classicist ideal beauty, inspired by Raphael and the art of Greek and Roman antiquity – he was also the master of the line. In contrast to him, Eugène Delacroix was the master of color. His art was considered more progressive and linked with the innovations of Impressionism. Gustave Courbet was the representative of Realism, the artist who considered everyday life his main theme. His heroes were farmers and workers, and for him beauty was not idealized, but copied from nature. Botero paid homage to these masters by painting their portraits.
Picasso and Giacometti, whom he admires profoundly, were also admitted to Botero’s singular Hall of the Immortals, as was Vincent van Gogh, despite Botero's close association with the Mediterranean area of Europe. Van Gogh's inclusion was no doubt prompted by his northern vision as reflected in his unforgettable still lifes of sunflowers.
Symbols of Transience: Foreboding Still Lifes
Still lifes are an important feature in Botero’s work. He paints simple tables with pineapples, bananas, glasses and bottles, flowers and vases. But their simplicity is deceptive. There is often an atmosphere of hidden suspense in the composition. The fruit is eaten by worms or infested with insects, the colors create a menacing impression, and elements such as a mirror or door ajar enhance the feeling of uneasiness. One is reminded of the still life paintings of the Dutch masters of the seventeenth century; the surface shows the unquestionable mastery of the artist, but we know that all objects have a hidden meaning: a candle may refer to the shortness of life, a flute to the futility of pleasure, a skull to the nearness of death. These still lifes are called Vanitas-still lifes; they contain a warning against the vanity of riches and the transience of earthly goods. Botero creates his own intriguing symbolism, sometimes easy to understand, sometimes hidden in mystery.
Images of Power: Aspects of Violence
Splendor and misery are never far apart in South American circumstances. Nature may be beautiful, but natural disasters occur with frightful frequency. Earthquakes destroy villages and cities, and volcanoes erupt and cover entire regions with lava. Fernando Botero is a realistic artist but he does not work from nature. His landscapes are painted from memory. It is the same with figures. He usually does not paint using figure models. The portraits of Presidents, First Ladies and other dignitaries are products of his imagination. The men and women in high positions are fully aware of their positions of power and they wear the symbolsof their leadership with pride. Botero’s observation is sharp, but it is never a matter of caricature. He creates his own Latin American panopticum, a world filled with childhood recollections and fierce reactions to news concerning violence in his native country – violence caused by nature or inflicted by political or subversive forces. Botero observed: “In Colombia, there are all sorts of climates and lights, ranging from the violent light and climate of the seaside to the filtered light and mild climate of the high plateau where the capital, Bogotà, is located. But my pictures are never based on the direct contemplation of the landscape or the people. They originate from my experience of reality.”
Vivid Reflections: The South American Way
“My painting”, Botero says, “has two main sources: on the one hand, there are my views on aesthetics, and on the other hand, the Latin American world where I grew up. I also think sensuality plays a great role and constitutes the principal means by which the artist transforms reality. I have to see the pictures of my childhood, the villages of Colombia, its people, its generals and bishops through the prism of my tenets about art.” Indeed Botero seems to store his observations, and when he works on his compositions he imbues his characters with human qualities and deficiencies depicted with psychological insight. Botero gives us a panorama of life in a small town in Latin America, as he remembers it: a life of small pleasures, regular distractions,secret escapades, and the excitement of the corrida, the bullfight in the Spanish style. The pleasures may be a little outing in the countryside, a picnic in the hills, or an evening of ballroom dancing to the rhythm of a small orchestra. A tango or a bolero may be a limited escape from a petty bourgeois existence with a facade of morality and religious obedience. Botero extends his observations to the intimacy of a dance studio, a dressing room or a bath. These scenes may be colorful and exotic, but they also leave us with a sense of melancholy.
Expressive Subtlety: Master Drawings
The drawings which Fernando Botero exhibits are not sketches or preliminary studies, but works of art in their own right. He produces his chalk drawings and watercolors on paper that is specially made for him, with a rough, irregular surface. His drawings feature a number of the same themes as his paintings, including scenes from daily life in South America, still lifes, figures of men and women, and portraits of beggars and soldiers. Describing his still lifes, Botero says: “I think the form of expression needs to be ruled by stylistic coherence. In other words, you can see in my work that my style remains the same, irrespective of the object being depicted, and throughout the whole picture. In my still lifes, the knives and forks, the fruit, the table and the table linen are all depicted in the same way. The effect is one of unity, harmony and consistency.” However, Botero’s most recent drawings do not deal with harmony. Botero made a series of works inspired by the circumstances of the detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Here Botero shows that he – like Goya in his series of etchings entitled Desastres de la Guerra (Disasters of War) is capable of depicting degradation as if we were eye witnesses ourselves. In his drawings Botero demonstrates that his distinctive visual idiom is capable of portraying scenes of horror without losing any of its expressive power. It is as if, by using a minimum of means to achieve maximum expression, Botero’s drawings get to the very heart of things.
Play of Volumes: Boterian Baroque
About thirty years ago Fernando Botero began to make his first sculptures. He had already made a career as a painter and a master of drawings, and he had attained a position of a well known, if controversial, artist in the world of the arts of the twentieth century. His first sculptures were presented in Paris, but later he found a studio in Pietrasanta, a town in Tuscany, situated on the coast between Carrara and Viareggio. Pietrasanta is the ideal place for a sculptor. Marble is available from the quarries in Carrara, but also from other areas, and there are highly skilled bronze foundries in the neighborhood. With the assistance of capable artigiani (specialized workers in marble or bronze), an artist is able to realize his designs. Botero started with a series of torsos and animal figures, and then continued with human sculptures in monumental size. His sculptures have been displayed on the Champs Elysées in Paris and on Park Avenue in New York. The vitality and energy of Botero are expressed in his sculptures together with his sense of perfection and balance. This is his own version of baroque art, created by observing the rules of clarity, rhythm, and harmony, and achieving in material form a sensuous delight that is absolutely his own.