Modern Art auction: Fernando Botero

The well-known Colombian artist, Fernando Botero, enrolled at an early age in training to become a bullfighter. It did not take long to realise however, that his star was to rise above a quite different arena and ever since, over the last 50 years, he has been delighting the art world with his opulent, universally recognised inflated figures.

Strongly influenced by the monumental works of Mesoamerican civilization and by pre-Colombian sculpture, Fernando Botero started creating sculptures of his own between 1963 and 1964 and since then he has produced monumental figures for public spaces in many major cities, including New York, Paris, Rome and Monte Carlo, as well as for the private market.

“Girl with a Bow” is a remarkable example of his style and method of treating forms and volumes. He is adamant that he does not depict “fat people,” but “volume” and the “sensuality of form.” His characters are cheerful to the point of naivety, yet at the same time they have a dark and unfathomable quality to them, always mixed with a touch of sentiment and humor, often with a hint of social and political criticism.

A recent major retrospective in China which began in Beijing and travelled to Shanghai, bears witness to the international appeal of “the most Colombian of Colombian artists.”

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