Boterism

Art

30.01.2021

634

Where does the term Boterism come from?

It is not easy for an artist to have a characteristic stamp. One that makes the viewer immediately recognize the style and author of the artwork. Fernando Botero has done it. The Colombian artist is recognized worldwide for his style, known by his surname, Botero.

Botero’s style is considered unique, his artworks show enlarged bodies, and have gone around the world. The artist has been dedicated to the production of artworks for more than six decades. He has worked in painting, sculpture, and of course, drawing. He is a Latin American reference and one of the most famous characters from his country, Colombia.

Botero’s artworks are sinuous, large, thick, and robust. In the eyes of the viewer, they are overweight people. His artworks are considered by some critics as cartoonish, and by others as ugly. It is important to note that ugliness has been used throughout history by various artists. Lucien Freud is an example of this, who used to paint elderly people, which generated an effect of tenderness on the viewer.

Boterism then is not obese painting. Boterism is exalting forms by making them large and monumental. Botero’s art is easy to understand.

Boterism, the experiment

Botero studied at the Real Academia de Arte de San Fernando in Spain. He had also studied at the Royal Academy of San Marcos in Italy. Likewise, he had held several exhibitions of his works in Colombia, where he had been strongly criticized.

In 1956 he was in Mexico. The art of murals that previously fascinated him, now he found boring. So he decided to experiment with volumes. He was in a park drawing a mandolin when he decided to make the sound hole a little smaller. The monumentality of the forms stands out then, the volume takes on a different meaning, which covers everything. It is at that moment that the volume and shapes begin to work. Boterism is born by mistake or by success.

Botero painted the mandolin several times. Here is an example of one of them. The sound hole is extremely small, the mandolin body is robust and large. The mandolin makes the table seem small, the fruits seem to have a size that we could take as a reference. The dim light of the bulb gives us warmth.

Naturaleza muerta y mandolina. Fernando Botero. 1992.

Botero and his messages

Botero has made art a window to expose world political problems. Among others, his artworks have addressed complicated issues of his own country, Colombia. In 1999 he painted The Death of Pablo Escobar.

Botero painted the well-known drug trafficker and brought him many criticisms. Because, according to some critics, he exalted the image of one of the most violent drug traffickers in the world. Then in 2006, he made another work with Pablo Escobar as the main character. Both works are in the Museum of Antioquia in Colombia.

The death of Pablo Escobar. Fernando Botero. 1999.

In 2005, Botero did 80 paintings showing the torture that occurred in Abu Ghraib.

The artwork showed scenes of soldiers torturing inmates in the Iraqi prison. This collection was taken to Washington and other cities around the world.

In the picture, Botero holding one of his artworks from the Abu Ghraib collection.

Botero’s sculpture

Botero’s sculptures are often more known than his paintings. And yet, they do not reach the same cost, being much cheaper than his paintings. Throughout the world, there are several sculptures that Botero has donated.