BOTERO in the National Museum of Colombia. New donation 2004 (Paperback)

rustic cover

This book-catalogue "which reproduces all the existing works of Fernando Botero in the National Museum of Colombia and the recent donation of his paintings on violence" is in turn the first of the new line that Villegas Editores intends to promote to carry his books to an ever-growing audience, inside and outside the country. Without sacrificing quality for the sake of larger print runs, but with a significant reduction in binding costs due to the softcover option, this initiative will benefit the reader who will be able to purchase these works at truly reasonable prices. It is, therefore, a collector's item.

"I am not going to do business with the pain of Colombia," declared Fernando Botero when announcing his decision not to put up for sale any of the paintings that he has painted on the subject of terror and violence in the country in recent years, motivated by "the moral obligation to leave a testimony about an irrational moment in our history", as he confesses. Consequently, the artist decided to donate the collection of these paintings "twenty-three readings and twenty-five drawings, most of them unpublished" to the National Museum of Colombia in Bogotá, an institution that from very early in the painter's career has been a frequent object of his generosity.

With texts by Beatriz Gonzalez and Santiago Lonsoño Vélez, this catalog "which has an independent version in English, distributed worldwide by Rizzoli International of New York", reproduces in color all the donations and other paintings by Fernando Botero in the National Museum of Colombia, a privileged place where the impressive ensemble, of almost 70 works, can be appreciated in the conducive environment to understand its evolution. As the Italian critic Vittorio Sgardi, cited by Beatriz González in his text, pointed out, the National Museum of Colombia is "the best way to understand Botero.