BOTERO. Sculptures (Inglés)

The sculptural work of Fernando Botero is not recent, as perhaps one might think. It emerged in the seventies as an extension, as a direct consequence of the resounding sense of volume given to his figures, which in those years was already the unmistakable characteristic of his style.

These characters and atmospheres in his paintings, like the early small-format sculptures, were creating a formidable particular universe, a “Boterian” universe, which, as we are told somewhere in this book, constitutes a utopian world, but not in the sense of ideal, but of a separate place where the possible and the real are transformed into excessive characters, into unusual scenes, into fantastic landscapes.

This mixture, in which the figurative real meets the fantastic, visible and palpable, is what gives Botero's work that peculiar charm, that allusive beauty of the gesture, that endearing sense of humor that suddenly emerges in his sculpture with unknown impetus.

Already in a book from 1986, with the deserved display, his small format work in three dimensions had been made known. Later, with the consecration of Botero as a sculptor after his 1992 exhibition in Paris, the world was able to see a broader production, of a monumental nature, than in his itinerant journey through the main cities of the world – Paris, New York, Chicago, Buenos Aires. Aires, Madrid, Monte Carlo, Washington, Santiago, Lugano, Lisbon, São Pablo, Frankfurt – has earned the artist universal recognition as the sculptor of the end of the century, without a doubt.

This book collects in its pages the long and fruitful sculptural career of Fernando Botero, from the works in small and medium format, which rest in private collections and in important museums around the world, to the masterful testimony offered by his monumental traveling exhibitions, and It becomes an invaluable document for collective memory and a unique aesthetic experience for readers when browsing each of its pages.

Fernando Botero , the Colombian painter recognized throughout the world as one of the great artists who emerged in the second half of the 20th century, was born in Medellín on April 19, 1932. At the age of 16 he exhibited his paintings for the first time to the public and to the 19 moves to Bogotá. In 1952 he traveled to Madrid, Spain, where he enrolled at the San Fernando Academy and worked intensively at the Prado Museum. The following year he dedicated himself to traveling through Italy and studying Renaissance works in Florence. In 1955 Botero returned to Bogotá, where he remained for five years. He then settled in New York until 1973, when he settled in Paris and began working on sculpture. In 1983 he established his residence and studio in Pietrasanta, Tuscany, Italy.

Both Botero's pictorial and sculptural works, particularly his monumental works, have traveled around the world, arousing the admiration and enthusiasm of those who come into contact with them.

Currently Botero distributes his activity and work between Paris, New York and Pietrasanta.

Jean-Clarence Lambert has had a leading role in international artistic life since the 1950s as a critic, theorist and exhibition organizer. He published numerous books, translated into several languages, and his poetic work is illustrated by the most famous contemporary artists. ARTCURIAL, in Paris, and the COBRA Museum in Amsteveen-Amsterdam dedicated several retrospective exhibitions to him.

Recent publications: Cobra, a free art; The imaginal region; The garden of the labyrinth; Constant, New Babylon; Trillali-Trillala; L'anti-légende du siècle.