Fernando Botero Selected Press by ContiniArtUk

Fernando Botero Selected Press

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Colombia’s visual artists emerge from 50 years of solitude

When Fernando Botero, the Colombian painter and sculptor, was a teenager in Medellín in the 1940s, his mother warned him of the consequences of persisting with his art. “All the artists I knew were extremely poor,” Botero once told me in New York. “There were no museums, no collectors. My mother said, ‘You’re going to die of hunger. But if you want to do it, you must’.” Botero had his first solo show in 1951, when he was 19, in the Colombian capital, Bogotá. He went on to become Latin America’s most commercially successful artist, whose unmistakable rotund, bronze figures can be found all over the globe, from post-Soviet Armenia to Manhattan’s Park Avenue. Yet for five decades Botero was almost alone in the international limelight — rather as the Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez was the sole writer known outside the country. Now, just as its novelists have done, Colombia’s visual artists have emerged from 50 years of solitude. Their isolation owed much to the violence of South America’s longest running civil war, triggered in 1948. The nadir was the 1980s and 1990s, when drug cartels declared open war on the government with terror bombings and kidnappings. As Botero depicted on canvas, the drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed on the Medellín rooftops in 1993. From 2002, the “democratic security” policy of President Álvaro Uribe made the cities safer and began to open the country to visitors and investors. 4

The art scene has thrived. Bogotá’s annual art fair, artBO, reached its 10th year in 2014 — which also saw the first art biennial in the Caribbean port of Cartagena. This February, Colombia was the guest country at ARCOmadrid, Spain’s biggest contemporary art fair. Artists such as Doris Salcedo (b1958, Bogotá) are in demand. Her work “Shibboleth”, in Tate Modern’s turbine hall in London in 2007, was a 167m-long jagged crack in the concrete floor that evoked hostile frontiers and the shock of migration. A major retrospective opens at the Guggenheim in New York on June 26. Interest has soared too in diasporic artists such as Oscar Murillo (b1986, La Paila), a painter who has lived in London since the age of 10. There is even talk of a “boom” in contemporary Colombian art — a notion that María Mercedes González, director of Medellín’s Museum of Modern Art (MAMM), dismisses. “It means you’re not recognising the work of many generations to make the ‘boom’ possible,” she says. Founded by local artists in 1978, MAMM moved into a disused steel plant in the regenerated Ciudadela del Río district in 2009 and will expand into a newly designed building later this year. González concedes, however, that there has been a growth in numbers. Along with more exchanges, training and residencies abroad, “there’s an awareness that it is possible to live as an artist”, she says. For José Roca, a Bogotá-based curator and until recently adjunct curator of Latin American Art at Tate Modern, “it’s not a boom of production but of visibility”. Art world professionals have been astounded by generations of artists who had worked in relative isolation, including Débora Arango (b1907), Beatriz González (b1938), Miguel Ángel Rojas (b1946), Oscar Muñoz (b1951) and Germán Londoño (b1961). At the same time, they discovered a younger generation, including Nicolás[a acute] Paris (b1977) and Mateo López (b1978). “Because the country was closed to the external gaze, people couldn’t believe the wealth of art they found,” says Roca. That wealth was already apparent in Without Remedy, a group show I saw seven years ago in a derelict hospital in Bogotá, put on by the Alcuadrado Gallery. This gallery was co-founded in 2003 by Juan Gallo Restrepo to create site-specific exhibitions in forgotten corners of Colombian cities. “We’re committed to showing work that shows the reality of this country,” he told me. In the videos of “Project for a Memorial” (2005), Muñoz frantically copied faces of the disappeared from news photographs, painting images with water on paving stones which vanished as the slabs dried. In Rojas’ video “Outline of Panic” (2003), a latex-gloved hand traced blood stains found on city pavements. His controversial David (2005) was a photographic installation of a nude soldier, with one leg amputated from a landline explosion, in the pose of Michelangelo’s statue. In “Return” (2008), by María José Arjona, the viewer stepped though bloody puddles of red ink that the performance artist had splattered on the ward walls. As she told me, “violence permeates and transforms everything”. Gallo died in 2009, but many of the artists he showed are now established. In the past 10 years, Roca says, “many people have returned from abroad and reinvigorated the scene. Collectors were very conservative and so was the public. Now, finally, there’s a market.” 5

“Colombian art has been effervescent for some time, but we’ve seen international visitors grow exponentially,” says María Paz Gaviria, artBO director. Foreign visitors have increased from 80 in 2012 to 350. International attention in turn boosts local collectors’ confidence. Gaviria says collecting in Colombia has developed with the fair, which has a section, Artecámera, devoted to artists under 40 without gallery representation. “It’s fascinating how rapidly spaces have opened up in the past couple of years,” she adds. For Paz, the quality of art was “driven by Colombia’s violence and difficulty. It cannot be denied that this marked the culture. But the generation of the past 10 years has more formal approaches.” Roca agrees. “Political violence marked three generations of artists. But there’s a backlash among a younger generation who don’t want to be pigeonholed,” he says. “Some came of age after that dark cloud ended, so they don’t touch the subject.” The environment has become a strong theme. In Rights of Nature: Art and Ecology in the Americas, an exhibition earlier this year at Nottingham Contemporary in the UK, Rojas’ “El Nuevo Dorado” (“The New Eldorado”) depicted the Amazon basin in gold leaf on a geometrical patchwork of coca leaves, alluding to tracts of rainforest that have been cleared for cocaine and gold-mining. Roca opened FLORA ars+natura in Bogotá in 2013 as a not-for-profit, independent space. “We’re interested in the darker aspects of society’s relationship to nature,” he says. Discerning a link between “politics and botanics”, he cites Salcedo’s recent installations, shown at London’s White Cube in 2012. “A Flor de Piel” (“Heart on Your Sleeve”) is a delicate shroud of sutured rose petals — a fragile honouring of a nurse who had been tortured to death. “Plegaria Muda” (“Silent Prayer”), dedicated to victims of gang violence, consists of upturned tables sprouting with tender sprigs. Albeit through nature, they continue the theme of remembrance.

June 12, 2015 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/732408ca-b5db-11e4-a577-00144feab7de.html#axzz3db8LKnVS

LHotel: Everything old is new again

Two remarkable sculptures stand outside the stately LHotel on StJacques St.: Robert Indiana’s rendering of the word “love” and Fernando Botero’s aptly named Voluptuous Man on Horse. They are familiar sights, but what other treasures are lurking inside? After a long, cold winter, I check into this boutique hotel to play tourist at home and better appreciate my own surroundings. For anyone with even a passing interest in art, there is much to appreciate about LHotel. This four-star, 56-room hotel was opened in 2010 by Guess fashion-empire founder Georges Marciano, whose extraordinary collection of 20th-century art is displayed throughout.

“He fell in love with the building,” says LHotel general manager Alejandro Gallardo. “He was looking for his house and he found it — in fact, he’s living on the fifth floor, so when you’re checking into this hotel you are his real guest. He’s sharing his art collection with you.” Those who merely linger in the lobby are treated to a significant slice of the collection, which comprises statues, paintings and limitededition prints. This intimate, idiosyncratic space is jam-packed with works by the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol, including the latter’s portrait of a youthful Marciano. The eye-popping parade continues as I take in three Joan Miró prints near the elevator, and numerous works along the second-floor corridor by artists such as Damien Hirst and James Rosenquist. The works I encounter during my stay are usually accompanied by labels with basic information – artist, year, title – and a discreet request: “Do not touch.” I’m told they are also fitted with alarms, but the sense of being able to freely roam and enjoy is remarkable. Particularly in my retreat for the night, the Frank Stella Suite. Oddly, none of the prints hanging here are by the acclaimed abstract artist. Instead, I will sleep surrounded by the likes of Robert Indiana and Edward Ruscha. Gallardo says that an app is being developed that will enable guests to learn about the art in their rooms. Like the rest of the hotel, which is housed in a grand 1870 bank building, the suite is a mix of old and new with an HD television, luxe shower-sauna, antique furniture and a classic Persian rug. Bold redpainted walls contrast with subdued beige upholstery, curtains and carpet. It’s an open, serene space, with soaring ceilings and large windows overlooking the corner of Notre-Dame and St-Jean streets. Calmed by the view of the nearby basilica and a horse-drawn carriage clipclopping by, I consider stretching out on the sofa or king bed with its seven soft white pillows. I’m keen to explore the art collection, however, and head to the lobby for a closer look. Boutique hotels that boast art collections are springing up from New York City to Melbourne, but I wager many couldn’t compete with the quality and quantity of artworks found in LHotel. In addition to the lobby’s many canvases are two substantial sculptures: Jaume Plensa’s white-resin figure glowing internally through a rainbow of colours and César Baldaccini’s dramatic column of crushed car. Among the other objects catching my eye are models of classic wooden speedboats. Evidently the real thing is a passion of Marciano. Paintings of these vessels grace the walls of the airy white breakfast room, which is otherwise evocative of a courtyard garden with its large skylight, framed butterflies and plants hanging from black trellises.

Breakfast, a continental buffet that includes St-Viateur bagels, flaky croissants and fresh fruit, is the only dining offered by LHotel, though the bar serves snacks such as cheese and charcuterie platters. In-room dining is available from two neighbourhood restos, while dozens more are steps away. Several art galleries are also within walking distance of the hotel, including the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Musée des Beaux-Arts and hidden gems such as Quebec’s museum of costume and textiles at Marché Bonsecours. There’s a lot of art to love in Montreal — as that iconic Robert Indiana sculpture outside LHotel reminds the city every day.

Published on: June 15, 2015

http://montrealgazette.com/life/urban-expressions/lhotel-everything-old-is-new-again

Interview With Fernando Botero Posted: 03/03/2015 6:16 pm EST Updated: 05/03/2015 5:59 am EDT

The international contemporary art fair, ArcoMadrid, will open its doors on February 25th, in association with Colombia, as an invited nation. The Fernando Botero (MedellĂn, Colombia - 1932) art collection is one of the 50 most important museum collections in the world. As a palette, paint, and brush artist, his hands have never stopped working. His figurative art draws out the form and essence of his subjects, provoking a higher sense of sensuality, flexibility and grandeur. Reality is transformed through his imagination: sometimes into kindness, other times into scathing violence. The sculptures, paintings and drawings have created a relevant artistic production, whose objective is "to create a formal opulence." These powerful figures, whether in marble or bronze, have been on exhibition in the most important venues in the world, such as: The Champs Elysees in Paris, Park Avenue in New York, The Grand Canal in Venice, and The Paseo de Recoletos in Madrid.

The still-lifes, the bull fighting, the circus, the religion and the eroticism make up an extensive theme rooted in Latin America -- specifically in his native country -- with a manifest skill in drawing and color. The beautiful and the violent combine together in the Boterian imagery that brings us closer to Colombia'ssoul through a nostalgic reminiscence.

Through his studies in Montecarlo, with views of the Mediterranean sea and his characteristic lighting, we can draw closer to the soul of this magnificent artist. Elena CuĂŠ: His knowledge about art history is plentiful and has unquestionably influenced his art work. Do you believe that an artist can be complete without being influenced by culture? Fernando Botero: A great artist is born from a profound knowledge of the tradition and problems of painting. However, there are many works in which freshness and audacity surprise, as can be seen in popular art and in certain examples of modern art. E.C: You have said that "art is a permanent accusation." Do you believe an artist has a moral duty to use his work to point out and denounce injustices in this devastating world? F.B: The only duty an artist has is in the quality of the art. There is no moral obligation to denounce. An artist confronted with a tremendous injustice sometimes feels inclined to say something. Denouncing the situation is the artist's choice.

E.C: Goya's influence in your paintings is evident. The series of engravings, "Casualties of War" ("Los desastres de la guerra") totally reveals a dramatic cruelty and barbaric humanity. Your work includes a series about the crimes that occurred in the Iraqi jail of Abu Ghraib after the United States attacks in 2001. In this world of cyber-technology, events are ephemeral, since the new always replaces the old, in contrast to art which is powerful and timeless, making it more applicable. Why did you choose this precise series of crimes? F.B: I did not choose this series of crimes, it was impossible to ignore them: just like Iraqi prisoners being tortured by Americans, in the Abu Ghraib jail - the same place where Sadam Hussein was tortured. Or, the violence in Colombia which left thousands of victims, on both sides, and displaced people, and since this happened in my country, it was especially painful for me. E.C: Goya already stated that illustration didn't make barbarism disappear. Do you believe there is hope in this respect? F.B: It is not possible for art to resolve situations which are basically political. The artist shows the situation that exists like a "permanent denunciation." Nobody would recall the small village, Guernica, which was bombed, if it were not for Picasso.

E.C: Wisdom comes from a long life. What do you believe is the meaning of life? F.B: The meaning of life is different for everyone. Some take on a hedonist attitude. For others, there is a necessity for spiritual or cultural fulfillment based on discipline. E.C: You have already embraced the life of an artist in every possible way, in all of its complexities. What counsel would you give the younger generations of artists? F.B: An artist is born like a

priest is born. If they are born an artist, I would tell them art is not a game, it is something very serious which completely requires everything you have to give. E.C: With an aesthetic technique as identifiable as yours, in which reality is expressed through a volumetric sensuality, what opinion do you have of the English artist, Beryl Cook, whose work reflects a seemingly jovial nature with an aesthetic sense very similar to yours? F.B: This is the first time I have heard of Beryl Cook.

E.C: Your artistic production has beentypecast as "Magic Realism" determined by the importance of the myths in Latin-America, as well as the "New Figurative"artcharacterized by a return to the informal methods of figurative painting. Do you agree with this description? F.B: Magic Realism, definitely not, because in my works nothing is magic. I paint about things which are unlikely but not impossible. In my pieces, nobody flies and nothing impossible happens. Art is always an exaggeration in some sense; in color, in form, even in theme, etc... but it has always been this way. It is the same with the nature of some works by Giotto or Massacio, or the color of life as expressed by Van Gogh. It could be a new figurative work. It is probable because we have inherited the liberty from abstract art, and we have a liberty in terms of shapes. Color and space involves thinking, not realism. E.C: What literature works have influenced and helped in the type of works you paint? F.B: I do not believe that other arts can influence painting - sometimes a vulgar image or a piece of popular art have more affect in the sensitivity of the painter than a masterpiece of literature. Since the very beginning I intuitively had an interest in exaggerating sizes.

E.C: What importance does sketching have in your painting? F.B: It is of utmost importance. Sketching is almost everything. It is the painter's identity, his style, his conviction, and then color is just a gift to the drawing. E.C: The generous donation of more than 200 works from your own collection to the Botero Museum in BogotĂĄ, and almost 20 others to the AntioquĂa Museum in MedellĂn is exemplary. What have your motivation and satisfaction been in this respect? F.B: The donation I made to Columbia from my collection, and from many of my works, is one of the best ideas I ever had in my life. The public's enjoyment is the best reward.

E.C: The millennial Hindu book, Kama Sutra, about the art of love in its spiritual and sexual fullness is reinvented by your imagination in Boterosutra. Which artists, from your point of view, have the best ability to represent love? F.B: Eroticism has made great plastic manifestation all over the Orient, in Persia, Japan, India, etc. I did my Boterosutra series using more imagination than memory, trying as always to make the artistic expression more important than the theme - the rhythm of drawing, the subtle modeling, the application of color were the dominant elements in this series. The theme is extraordinary and unique because only in loving the human body can you make postures which could only be repeated

in the circus.

E.C: Nietzsche, in The Birth of a Tragedy, writes "it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified." Is the art, as stated by Nietzsche, the metaphysical activity of life? For an artist like you, would this metaphysics be the only way we can make our avatars existence tolerable? F.B: I have never read Nietzsche, but I do believe that the artist presents a world as the metaphysics of art. The artist presents, through his work in general, a more beautiful loving world that makes the "avatars of our existence," as you said, more tolerable. E.C: The study of the relationship of an artist's biography and work has been a constant throughout the history of art. The Colombian history, social and political reality are expressed through your career. How do you see your country evolving right now? What vision do you have for spreading your national cultural identity? F.B: The work of an artist, in its totality, is like a self portrait - in my country, in between great dramas, there has been an economic evolution and culturally positive advancements. I believe in the importance of the roots in an artist's work. That 'something' that comes from the motherland is what gives works their touch of honesty. E.C: What have been the most important moments of your life? F.B: The most important moments of my life have always been connected to my work. They were moments in which I felt I accomplished something unexpected. E.C: What do you have left to do? F.B: Learn to paint.

Bilbao Fine Arts Museum Record numbers

The museum receives 295.655 visitors in 2012 With more than 295,655 visitors in 2012, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum has achieved record numbers for the year. This figure surpasses the previous record of 259,968 visitors achieved in 2011. This sizeable increase in numbers can partly be accounted for by two exceptional exhibitions: Firstly, the retrospective devoted to the painter Antonio López, which opened on 10 October 2011 in the BBK Gallery at the Museum as the result of a collaborative project between the Museum and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The exhibition was also outstandingly successful in Madrid, with 317,977 visitors. In Bilbao, the 209,531 people who saw it made it the most visited exhibition in the Museum’s history and it was consequently extended until 29 January 2012. The previous record for visitor numbers at the Museum was for Sorolla. Vision of Spain. Collection of the Hispanic Society of America, which received 154,009 visitors. Secondly, Fernando Botero: Celebration topped 156,646 visitors, making it the second most-visited exhibition ever in the history of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum after Antonio López, and just ahead of Sorolla: A Vision of Spain. Showing works by two masters still actively producing art and who remain great favourites with the general public, the Antonio López and Fernando Botero exhibitions have been decisive in the significant increase in visitor levels and the subsequent new records set by the Museum in 2011 (259,968) and 2012 (295,655). Both shows were made possible by generous sponsorship from BBK Fundazioa, which provides sustained backing for the Museum’s main exhibition programme. Most popular exhibitions Antonio López 209.531 visitors (10|10|11 • 01|29|12) Fernando Botero. Celebration 166.646 visitors (10|08|12 • 01|20|13) Sorolla. Vision of Spain. Collection of the Hispanic Society of America 154.009 visitors (10|13|08 • 02|01|09)

https://www.museobilbao.com/in/actualidad/record-numbers-100

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Christie’s spring of Colombian art

The prestigious autioneers, Christie’s, will present outstanding works by some of the region’s most established and sought after modern and contemporary artists during their much anticipated spring sale of Latin American Art this month. Artworks up for auction include Fernando Botero, Claudio Bravo, Mario Carreño, Matta, Cildo Meireles, Gabriel Orozco, Diego Rivera, Tomás Sánchez, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Joaquín Torres-García and Adriana Varejão. The sale is particularly rich in its selection of works by many surrealist artists, including key examples by several of the European émigré women artists— Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Alice Rahon and Bridget Tichenor—who converged in Mexico City during the 1940s and 50s during a period of great cultural and intellectual flourishing. Leading Mexican modernists like Rufino Tamayo and Diego Rivera are equally well represented with exceptional works including the monumental Lavanderas con zopilotes by Diego Rivera and the richly chromatic and vibrant Rufino Tamayo’s Mujer con sandías. Additional highlights include works by leading abstract geometric artists that span the many manifestations of abstraction in Latin America from Edgar Negret’s talismanic steel reliefs or aparatos mágicos and Gego’s brilliant experiments with line and space in her dibujos sin papel to Carmen Herrera’s reductivist approach to color and form in her iconic black and white series. Christie’s Saleroom at Rockefeller Plaza, New York, The auction will take place in the th th on May 27 and May 28 .

Days before the auctioneer’s gavel falls on these important works, Christie’s will present the exhibition “Colombia Recounted: A Project of Contemporary Colombian Art” and which opens May 23rd . Colombia Recounted is the result of a collaboration between the Latin American Painting Department and two external curators, who have worked together to assemble a tight, 14-piece exhibition which offers a nearly perfect portrait of Colombia’s dynamic scene. ‘We would have like to have had a larger group,’ claims the Miami-based, Colombian-born curator Francine Birbragher-Rozencwaig. “We needed to select a group that would best expose the contemporary art practice of Colombia to viewers completely unfamiliar with it, whilst broadening the mindset of those who only know Doris Salcedo or Fernando Botero,” she added, citing two of the country’s best known practitioners. Colombian artists, Beatríz Gonzalez, Rafael Gómez Barros, Miler Lagos and Luis Fernando Roldán have also been invited to showcase their work at this important exhibition of contemporary Colombian art.

May 19, 2015 http://thecitypaperbogota.com/culture/christies-spring-of-colombian-art/8967

Récord histórico El museo recibió a lo largo del año 2012 la cifra récord de 295.655 visitantes. El Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao ha conseguido un nuevo récord a lo largo del año 2012, al haber recibido 295.655 visitantes. De este modo, se supera el anterior récord histórico que se había establecido el pasado 2011, año en el que se alcanzaron por vez primera los 259.968 visitantes. A este incremento sustancial en el número de visitantes al museo ha contribuido decisivamente la oportunidad de organizar dos muestras excepcionales: Por una parte, la retrospectiva dedicada al pintor Antonio López, que fue inaugurada el 10 de octubre de 2011 en la sala BBK del museo y que pudo ser presentada gracias al esfuerzo conjunto del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao y el Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza de Madrid. En este museo madrileño también tuvo un éxito sin precedentes, con 317.977 visitantes. En Bilbao, las 209.531 personas que pasaron por el museo consiguieron convertirla en la exposición más visitada de su historia y, ante este hecho excepcional, tuvo que ser ampliada hasta el 29 de enero de este 2012. Por otra parte, la exposición Fernando Botero. Celebración alcanzó los 166.646 visitantes, lo que la convierte en la segunda muestra más visitada en la historia del museo tras la mencionada Antonio López y seguida de Sorolla. Visión de España. Las muestras dedicadas a Antonio López y Fernando Botero, maestros aún en activo y que concitan la admiración del público, han contribuido decisivamente al significativo aumento y consecuentes récords de visitantes que el museo ha conseguido en los años 2011 (259.968) y 2012 (295.655). Ambas han sido realizadas gracias al patrocinio de BBK Fundazioa, que sustenta de forma estable el programa principal de exposiciones del museo.

Exposiciones más visitadas Antonio López 209.531 visitantes (10/10/2011–29/01/2012) Fernando Botero. Celebración 166.646 visitantes (08/10/2012–20/01/2013) Sorolla. Visión de España. Colección de la Hispanic Society of America 154.009 visitantes (13/10/2008–01/02/2009)

03|01|13 https://www.museobilbao.com/actualidad/record-historico-100

Christie's sale expected to surpass $22 million Christie's auction house in New York has given a preview of its spring sale of Latin American art, featuring works by well known artists including Varo, Rivera and Tamayo as well as contemporary works by Gego and Volpi. Works of art by Mexican painters Remedios Varo, Rufino Tamayo and Colombian artist Fernando Botero are among the highlights of the spring auction. There are over 260 lots in the sale of contemporary and modern art. Virgilio Garza, head of Latin American Art at Christie's, says this is an exciting time for the genre which is still developing. And he sees the sale attracting buyers from all corners of the world. "It's a very exciting selection of Mexican modernism, South American abstract art, Surrealism, particularly female surrealists, and contemporary art. We expect that between all the genres the sale will bring in US$ 21-32 million," he said. The top lot of the sale is expected to be Remedios Varo's surrealist work "Vegetarian Vampires", painted in 1962. The painting was completed at the peak of Varo's career. It has never before been offered at auction. Christie's estimates the work to sell for between US$ 1.5 and 2 million. "We're very fortunate to have this wonderful masterpiece. In an architectural setting it has these winged figures that are eating a rose, a tomato and a watermelon. It really has Varo's signature style. She painted like no one else so this is a great example of her mature work," Virgilio Garza said. Other top sellers: Rufino Tamayo's "The Astronauts" is estimated to fetch between US$ 500 - 700 thousand. And twelve works by Fernando Botero including a sculpture entitled, "Dancing Couple", has an estimated value of US$ 400 - 600 thousand. Christie's Latin American sale takes place on May 27-28th in New York.

05-28-2015 http://english.cntv.cn/2015/05/28/VIDE1432745639421396.shtml

Fernando Botero (Colombian, b. 1932) ‘Fernando Botero is the great Colombian master,’ says Christie’s specialist Virgilio Garza. Born in Medellín in 1932, Botero had little access to cultural institutions in his youth, finding artistic inspiration, instead, in the Baroque-style colonial churches and street life of his native city. In 1952, Botero left Colombia, moving through Spain with a group of artists before coming to rest in Paris. There, he would spend hours in the Louvre, studying works by Renaissance masters — an interest that he later pursued in Florence, where he lived from 1953-54. Today the artist divides his time between Italy, New York, Paris and Colombia, his work displaying both European and Latin American influences. Botero pointedly returns to his hometown for a month each year, and has famously described himself as ‘the most Colombian of Colombian artists.’ ‘Since the late 1950s, he has been developing a world populated by unique characters, exploring, not only formal concerns such as volume and form, but also European art history — from still life, nudes, landscapes and sculptural traditions,’ comments Garza.

Instantly recognisable, his plump style has been termed ‘Boterismo’, and is used to depict a cast of stock characters: ‘Botero has always been interested in types: the politician, the nun, the prostitute, the mother, the priest, the roles of men and women,’ Garza adds. For Garza, these fleshy subjects aren’t cruel caricatures, but ‘loving’ portraits. Despite this, Garza admits Botero can be ‘satirical, with a political edge; he doesn’t shy away from topical subjects, producing paintings that address drug wars and violence in Colombia, as well as global politics’. ‘In this sale we have a fantastic example of Botero’s sculptural work, paintings, and drawings, dating from the ‘60s to the ‘90s. It’s very intimate, very beautiful work,’ Garza concludes.

Claudio Bravo (Chile, 1936 — 2011)

Born in Chile in 1936, Claudio Bravo produced paintings in a poetic-realist style, drawing inspiration not only from Renaissance and Baroque masters, but Surrealists such as Salvador Dalí. As international as Botero, the artist moved from Chile to Spain then New York, passing through the Philippines before settling in Morocco. In the Philippines, he pursued a successful career as an official portrait painter, depicting the president and other notaries bathed in the archipelago’s warm light. Living in Spain under Franco’s rule, the artist was frustrated to find his works appealed to the public’s conservative taste. He promptly stopped, beginning a series of paintings focused not on people but on paper-wrapped packages — the first of which was a present from his three visiting sisters. ‘Red Paper is a beautiful painting, one of a series of works depicting crumpled paper, in which colour, levity and mass play a crucial role,’ Garza says. Commenting on the series, Bravo claimed ‘I wanted to give a sense of trompe l’oeil acitivty.’ ‘From the late 1970s, he moved to Morocco, where he lived until his death, surrounded by beautiful architecture and art,’ Garza explains. ‘He’s regarded as one of the greatest Latin American painters of a generation; in terms of technique, he’s also one of the most proficient.’

Mario Carreño (Cuba 1913 — 1999)

‘Carreño was one of the great Cuban modernists,’ says Garza. Born in 1913 in Havana, the artist’s early works oozed the heat and colour of the Caribbean, depicting figures set against Surrealist landscapes. ‘Also known as The Blue Bird, El Azulejo is a fantastic work, depicting a man and woman — one clothed, the other nude — holding a bird and its cage against a barren landscape,’ Garza comments. ‘It’s a dream-like scene, implying a narrative that is never quite clear: is the bird being contained or liberated?’ Painted in 1940, El Azulejo precludes Carreño’s predominantly abstract phase, begun in 1950. ‘Though he never abandoned the figure completely, his later works differed from earlier paintings,’ Garza explains. ‘This sale features several works from across his career, many of which will be a delight for collectors of Cuban art from the 1930s and ’40s.’

Cildo Meireles (Brazil, b. 1948) Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1948, Cildo Meireles is a conceptual artist whose large-scale sculptures and installations transform everyday objects into politically charged works of art. 71

At the age of just ‘seven or eight’, an encounter with an impoverished man in the Brazilian countryside left him convinced of the importance of making and leaving things for others. Meireles met the man as he was leaving a wooded area, later discovering the man had left behind him a ‘perfect hut’ — an object the artist described as ‘perhaps the most decisive thing for the path [he] followed in life’.

Meireles has since gained international renown for works such as Insertions into Ideological Circuits which saw the artist remove Coca Cola bottles and currency from circulation, subtly modifying them before reintroducing them into the market. Altered objects featured critical political statements, the artist describing the project as a ‘kind of mobile graffiti’. ‘Rodos (above) is an installation made with found objects of the same name — a variation of the squeegees used to clean windows,’ explains Garza. Distorted and rendered functionless, the squeegees continue Meireles’ exploration of the found object as art work, whilst commenting on issues including consumption and recycling. ‘Cildo Meireles is among a select group of installation and conceptual artists who successfully merge history, politics and notions of circulation and consumption,' Garza says. ‘Today, he is regarded as one of Brazil’s greatest living artists.’

Los Carpinteros, (Marco Antonio Castillo Valdés, Cuba, b. 1971 and Dagoberto Rodríguez Sánchez, Cuba, b. 1969)

‘Cuban art collective Los Carpinteros — literally, the carpenters — has come to be well known internationally, with major projects in a number American cities,’ Garza explains. Begun in 1991, Los Carpinteros initially comprised three artists, who adopted the name in 1994 when they decided to ‘renounce the idea of individual authorship and refer back to an older guild tradition of artisans and skilled labourers.’ In 2003, the trio became a duo, comprising Cuban-born artists Marco Antonio Castillo Valdés and Dagoberto Rodriguez Sánchez. Today, they live and work in Havana, producing pieces that seek to bridge the gap between art and society in a humorous manner. Installations and drawings by Los Carpinteros draw upon architecture, design and sculpture, asking viewers to consider how their surrounding environment is conceived, built, used and abandoned. ‘Like Meireles,’ comments Garza, ‘they are artists who make utopian monuments, recycling mundane materials to make something quite new.’

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