Why did Fernando Botero paint voluptuous people and animals?: The artist hated the term ‘fat’

This Friday, Colombia and the world mourn the departure of Fernando Botero, who died at the age of 91 due to health problems. Botero was an excellent painter, sculptor and draftsman who was characterized by a different and, for many, irreverent style. create your own interpretation of the figurative style.

Fernando Botero dies: Colombia’s famous painter

The originality lies in the sublime volumetry, which gives His works have a three-dimensional character, strength, exuberance and sensuality. This makes him the owner of his own style: ‘buterismo’.

The first time he had an epiphany about his embroidered shapes was in 1957, with his piece Still life with mandolin. He then made a hole that was too small in this stringed instrument. “Between the small detail and the generosity of the exterior line, a new dimension was created that was more volumetric, more monumental and more extravagant,” he explained at the time.

With Botero the adjective “fat” was not valid for his grades. In love with the Italian Renaissance, he proclaimed himself above all ‘defender of volume’ in modern art. His sculpture, also characterized by gigantism, occupied a very important place in his career and developed largely in Pietrasanta (Tuscany, Italy).

“He doesn’t like the word ‘fat’ at all, he would ban it; “He is a painter of volumes.” highlighted last March by Marisa Oropesa, curator of her latest exhibition “Botero: Sensuality and Melancholy”, presented in Valencia (Spain), which was inaugurated on Thursday.

Botero, the world’s best-selling Latin American artist, broke his own record in 2022 when his sculpture Man on horseback It reached $4.3 million at a Christie’s auction.

But why did he make voluminous figures? At one point he explained that the monstrous volumes of his painting created areas of color. But he also believed that they could be obsessions that would stay with him until the end of his time.

His iconic works include Dead Bishops, The Miracle of Saint Hilarion, Apotheosis of Ramón Hoyos, The Child of Vallecas, among other things. (JO)