Opera Gallery Geneva is pleased to present BOTERO from September 23 until October 22, 2022, an exhibition featuring over a dozen works on canvas, works on paper and sculptures of Colombian contemporary artist Fernando Botero. A multifaceted artist, influenced by the Italian Renaissance as well as pre-Columbian Art and Folklore from his native country, Botero developed his own style, distinguishable from any other artistic movement. Using irony, emotion and ingenuity, Botero shattered forms and abolished proportions by distorting volume. His characters and objects have rounded elephantine shapes with generous, voluptuous and sensual but with precise details. Botero has actively created for over seventy years an original and unique body of work.
Fernando Botero
Concierto Campestre2017
Oil on canvas
107 x 155,9 cm | 42.1 x 61.4 in
An artist is attracted to certain types of forms without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; it is only later that you try to rationalise or even justify it.
Sculpture is painting without borders.
Fernando Botero
Maternita2003
Bronze
48,3 x 20,3 x 20,3 cm | 19 x 8 x 8 in
Fernando Botero
Nature morte à l’ananas1988
Oil on canvas
146 x 198 cm | 57.5 x 77.9 in
I have never worked with models . A model for me would be a limitation to my freedom to draw or paint . I have never put three objects on a table to make a still life. Nor have I ever placed myself in a particular place to reproduce a landscape . In fact , I don't need anything in front of me. My choices of characters are arbitrary and all are the fruit of my imagination.
Fernando Botero
Sans Titre2004
Watercolour on paper
28,5 x 36 cm | 11.2 x 14.2 in
Fernando Botero
Nature morte au gueridon2006
Watercolour on paper
36.8 x 31.3 cm | 14.5 x 12.3 in
Fernando Botero
Woman on a HorseBronze
121 x 52 x 90 cm | 47.6 x 20.5 x 35.4 in
Sculptures allow me to create a real volume, you can touch the shapes , you can give them softness , all the sensuality you want.
Fernando Botero
Niña con flor1999
Oil on canvas
202 x 176 cm | 79.5 x 69.3 in
People think I am a painter of fat women, but I draw volumes.
Fernando Botero
Picnic2002
Oil on canvas
115 x 167 cm | 45.3 x 65.7 in
Fernando Botero
Donna sdraiata con capelli lunghi, Versiliese2015
Bronze
45,4 x 104 x 43,2 cm | 17.9 x 40.9 x 17 in
Fortunately my subjects have been very limited In the history of sculpture, eighty percent of the subject matter has been a woman either reclining standing or seated It is a great tribute paid to the most beautiful form of nature The interesting thing is that in returning to the same subject you always say something different This is one of the charms one of the limitations and one of the difficulties that I describe in being a sculptor You have to truly be original each time.
Fernando Botero
Still Life with Couple2013
Oil on canvas
96 x 121 cm | 37.8 x 47.6 in
The sketch is almost everything . It is the painter's identity , his style, his conviction, and then the colour is just a gift to the drawing.
Fernando Botero
Acrobat Portrait Bust2007
Pastel and charcoal on Mexican paper
40 x 30 cm | 15.7 x 11.8 in
Fernando Botero
Dancer with a Cane2007
Pencil and charcoal on paper
40 x 30 cm | 15.7 x 11.8 in
Fernando Botero
Couple Drinking2011
Pencil, watercolour on canvas
98 x 132 cm | 38.6 x 52 in
Fernando Botero
Guitar Player2022
Watercolour and graphite on paper
41 x 31 cm | 16.1 x 12.2 in
Fernando Botero
Man and Woman2022
Watercolour and pencil on paper
31 x 41 cm | 12.2 x 16.1 in
Fernando Botero
The President2021
Watercolour and graphite on paper
41 x 31 cm | 16.1 x 12.2 in
Fernando Botero
Little Whore2022
Watercolour and pencil on paper
41 x 31 cm | 16.1 x 12.2 in
Fernando Botero in Monaco on February 14, 2001. Photo by Alain Benainous / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.
Botero has brought a new interpretation to the aesthetics of our time, the circus, Latin American life, still life, reinterpretations of past masters of art history… The artist's works contain many references to his own culture, and in a unique style, they question the concept of beauty in our century.
He has created monumental sculptures for public spaces in many major cities, including New York (Park Avenue), Paris (Champs-Élysées), Rome and Monte-Carlo. His works are found in many important private and public collections, such as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.); Ho-am Art Museum (Seoul); The Israel Museum (Jerusalem); Kunsthalle Nuremberg (Nuremberg); Museo d'Arte Moderna del Vaticano (Rome); Museum Moderne Kunst (Vienna); Neue Pinakothek (Munich); Staatgalerie Moderne Kunst (Munich); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Tel Aviv); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); The Museum of Modern Art (New York); and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York).