It has been more than a year since Fernando Botero said goodbye to life, but his legacy is still present through his art and his sons, who are responsible for keeping his memory alive through exhibitions.
This February, the Palau Martorell is hosting the exhibition Fernando Botero. Un maestro universal, with a selection of around a hundred works, some of them unpublished. We spoke with his daughter, Lina Botero, who, moved by the event, was unable to suppress her tears at the beginning of the presentation.
The artistic path of Botero
Fernando Botero arrived in Europe at the age of 19, landing in Barcelona before moving to Madrid. There, he spent countless hours in museums such as the Prado, closely studying great masters such as Picasso, Velázquez and Goya. His artistic quest later took him to Italy, where he discovered volume in Renaissance painting, a fundamental discovery that would forever mark his unique style.
La Menina, según Velázquez. Botero never wanted to sign it, as it was more Velázquez’s than his. Editorial credit: Palau Martorell.
Your father reinterpreted many paintings by classical artists. In addition to his influence on your father’s painting, do you think it also influenced his reflective thoughts on life?
My father used to say that art, throughout history, had as its main purpose to exalt and celebrate life. He also believed that the most pleasurable sensations are those that never tire of producing emotion. For example, when you enter a church and see the masterpieces of great artists, you have seen them a thousand times, but nevertheless, every time you stand in front of them you feel the same emotion again.
As for the connection with the artists, he said that the richness of an artist consists in the influences that have marked his life and his work. My father did not hide the influences he had, because he believed that true talent began by choosing the best, and he found masters in museums in Spain and Italy.
Do you think there are aspects of his artistic career that have not been fully studied?
Yes, and that’s what makes it so fascinating for different curators to be able to re-study the works. For example, my father was incredibly prolific and produced an enormous body of work on paper. Now, for the month of October, there is going to be an exhibition in northern Italy, exclusively of works on paper. He was crazy about working with different techniques and mastering them, and managed to work with watercolour in very large formats and vertically. These different challenges invite us to explore other facets of his career.
El Picnic, 2001. Editorial credit: Private collection.
Was there any project that your father wanted to take on or develop but couldn’t?
No, I think my father did everything he wanted to do during his lifetime. One of his greatest achievements was to donate to Colombia his art collection that he had built up over 35 years. He also donated 100 works to the Museum of Bogotá and 100 additional works to the Museum of Antioquia along with the 24 monumental sculptures that are in the plaza in front of the museum. His greatest satisfaction was to have been able to give Colombia the gift of his art, and to have been rewarded with love, recognition and affection from the people.
In addition, one of his dreams was to exhibit in China, and three exhibitions were held in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, attracting more than one and a half million visitors.
The most intimate portrait
Lina Botero confesses that when her father was asked what his favourite work was, he always replied: ‘The one I am painting at the moment’. He would travel to New York, Paris or Monaco, leave his suitcase and immediately enter his studio so as not to interrupt his creative flow. As a result of this tireless dedication, they have discovered hidden gems such as rolls of canvases or large-format watercolours that today go through a slow process of cataloguing, photographing and framing. Among them are beauties such as the portrait of the artist’s youngest son, Pedrito, who died as a child.
When I asked my father what his favourite work was, he always replied: ‘The one I am painting at the moment’. – Lina Botero confesses.
Did the role of the family influence you when creating?
My father was a great family man, he was a patriarch and the whole family was united around him. But a key moment was when my brother Pedrito was born, my father was 38 years old, and he painted a lot of pictures of him, but he died when he was four years old in a traffic accident in Madrid. That was a terrifying blow, from which my father almost didn’t make it, but he managed to carry on because he clung to his work as if it were a lifeline.
Views of the exhibition with two portraits of Botero’s youngest son, Pedrito. Editorial credit: Palau Martorell.
The event marked the family, and he wanted to dedicate an entire room to it in the Museo de Antioquia, entitled Sala Pedro Botero. They are extraordinary paintings in his memory, and for the exhibition, in the Palau Martorell, an unpublished pastel portrait. It is a painting that we found in the storage room he left in New York after the accident, which he locked and never wanted to open again. We only discovered it a few years ago, it’s a beauty, and now we have the pleasure of being able to include it in the exhibitions.
Lina tells us about the unpublished painting of Pedrito, her little brother who died in a traffic accident:
In the Palau Martorell, you can see an unpublished pastel portrait, as it had never been exhibited in public. – he explains Lina Botero.
On a personal level, do you have a favourite work?
It’s very difficult to say which is my favourite work because it’s impossible. But the portrait Pedrito a caballo, which he painted just after his death, which is in the Museo de Antioquia, is a painting that I have engraved in my heart.
The essence of the local, the rootedness to his roots and his universal projection was Fernando Botero’s path. He learned from the best masters, but he always carried his South American identity with him, turning it into an artistic language. He never stopped painting and never stopped enjoying his art, maintaining the passion that defined him until the last days of his life.
