Pleasantly plump
With whimsical irony and a style reminiscent of the old masters, Fernando Botero (b.1932) began painting caricatured animals and corpulent bodies with disproportionate heads at a time when his contemporaries were fervently rejecting figurative work in favor of abstraction. More recently he has expanded into sculpture, creating delightful large-scale bronze works portraying the same sorts of voluminous figures he so loved to paint. Like the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or the music of Astor Piazzola, Botero’s work has come to represent modern Latin American culture.
With whimsical irony and a style reminiscent of the old masters, Fernando Botero (b.1932) began painting caricatured animals and corpulent bodies with disproportionate heads at a time when his contemporaries were fervently rejecting figurative work in favor of abstraction. More recently he has expanded into sculpture, creating delightful large-scale bronze works portraying the same sorts of voluminous figures he so loved to paint. Like the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or the music of Astor Piazzola, Botero’s work has come to represent modern Latin American culture.
The author:
Mariana Hanstein, a native of Chile, studied art history in Munich, Bonn. and Venice. She is an art historian who has published works about Peter Paul Rubens and 18th century Venetian painting and was an art critic and editor of the art market section of the German newspaper Die Welt for almost ten years. Hanstein lives and works in Cologne.
Mariana Hanstein, a native of Chile, studied art history in Munich, Bonn. and Venice. She is an art historian who has published works about Peter Paul Rubens and 18th century Venetian painting and was an art critic and editor of the art market section of the German newspaper Die Welt for almost ten years. Hanstein lives and works in Cologne.
