Fernando Botero
The Square, 2013
Oil on canvas
127 X 101 cm
Copyright The Artist
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The Peruvian Nobel Prize Mario Vargas Llosa referred to Botero as “an exemplary artist [...]. His painting is an exceptional proof of how a Latin American artist can find himself – and thus express his world - establishing a creative dialogue with Europe, taking advantage of its sources, its techniques, emulating its artistic patterns ".
Although Botero has only lived in Colombia for the first twenty years of his life, his painting is deeply rooted in the memories of his youth. The squares of Latin American towns and cities have in common the contrast between a very simple colonial architecture and a complex mountainous landscape that serves as its backstage. Nobody has managed to capture this unique particularity as Botero, evoking his personal past through the tools of the Western History of Art.
The elegance of the inhabitants who cross the square with their umbrellas ready for the rain brings us memories of the impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte and his magnificent piece, Paris under the rain.