Happy Birthday Fernando Botero: Venice

The exhibition presents a selection of paintings, watercolors, charcoals, drawings and bronze sculptures that offer a glimpse into the artist's inner world. Botero's artistic style focuses on the concept of volume, emphasizing the importance of form and the exalted action of beauty. Botero's earliest inspirations go back to Spanish artists such as Picasso and Gris. The artist later began experimenting with exaggerated proportions and exploring volume. Prominent among the works in the exhibition is the painting "Violin on Chair," which exemplifies Botero's unique style characterized by volumetric expansion and sensual forms. Botero's art is also characterized by fluid lines that create an intriguing interplay of forms. His subjects, depicted with altered volumes and figures, exist in a detached dimension, seemingly unaffected by joy or sorrow. The small painting titled "Woman at the Window" symbolically captures the essence of Botero's poetics: the work depicts a woman sitting by a window, adorned with jewelry and wearing an elegant dress, who seems to be waiting for something or someone. The painting's details, such as the rich color palette and the glimpse of the city behind the woman, help to suggest symbolic meaning. Botero's subjects range from reinterpretations of historical masterpieces to scenes of everyday, domestic and street life to satirical portraits of contemporary political figures.