Fernando Botero: El Maestro

October 19, 2022 - July 9, 2023

By Gabriela Urtiaga, Chief Curator, MOLAA

The Museum of Latin American Art is honored to present the exhibition Fernando Botero: The Master, as part of the celebration of his more than uninterrupted 60 years as a unique creator and fundamental figure of the XX Century, pioneer of figurative art through his incomparable approach to the exaltation of form, volume, and beauty.

Master Botero is a poet of the daily life and a multifaceted author that has influenced generations since the start of his career in his hometown of Medellin, Colombia, until he achieved international recognition.

His research of forms and volumes, together with the harmony of colors, first in his paintings and then in his monumental sculptures, made it possible for his style to acquire an aesthetic category of its own, known as Boterismo.

The exhibition is presented in dialogue with the monumental sculpture Reclining Woman (2007), which graces the Museum entrance and works as a starting point towards the discovery of an artist who has always preserved the essence of his Latin American roots and elevated them to an international language.

We invite you to explore his artistic trajectory through selected artworks that are part of the MOLAA Collection and the Botero private collection; an intimate and personal journal that explores the artistic creations of the Maestro and, at the same time, reveals his influences, contributions, motivations, and working methods.

This tribute is a small tribute to a Latin American artist that has made an invaluable contribution to international art and cultural ties as an element of transformation and change.

Fernando Botero is one of the world’s most recognized living artists of our time. With his first paintings and drawings inspired by Gustave Doré’s engravings of the Divine Comedy, and posters of bullfights, Botero held his first exhibition in Bogota, Colombia in 1951, and in 1952 he won second place in the “Salón Nacional de Artistas” in Bogota. With his prize money, he travelled to Madrid and Florence, where he studied the exploration of volume and perspective from the Renaissance masters. With a style that is immediately recognized and celebrated, Botero has maintained throughout his career, the essence of Colombian and Latin American elements in his creation.

Renowned for his distinctive style and exploration with color and exaggerated volume, Fernando Botero’s ‘Boterismo’ single handedly redefined beauty with using sensual and voluptuous forms and a pioneering notion of aesthetics. So much so that his work has been recognized across cultural and geographical borders, far from his hometown in Colombia.

Although his subject matters have always been local, his universal language of art is what propelled him to worldwide success. With a career spanning over 60 years and having exhibited all over the world, Fernando Botero is an iconic living artist of our time who has had the most museum exhibitions and the most books written about him. Maestro Fernando Botero turned 90 years old this year and is still active today.