The Bullght has been one of the most important subjects in Master Botero’s career.
In fact, Botero was close to becoming a Bullghter, given that la esta brava was a
very important tradition in the Colombia he grew up in and his uncle, don Joaquín
Angulo, enlisted him in a school for banderilleros. Nonetheless, the artist has often
told that it was during his rst encounter with a real bull that he realized his future
laid in canvas and pencils and not in the arena.
- Eduardo Trujillo Collection
- Botero Family Collection
- Foundation Focus Sevilla
- Maestro Botero Private Collection
Botero’s art works were adolescent copies of bullghting posters, which he sold in
the plaza’s ticket-box. However, as he developed his interest in volume and matured
as a painter, he completely forgot of this subject, which he did not approach again
until the mid-1980s, when he was already a consummated artist. And then, as his
son and art critic Juan Carlos has stated:
“it was as if the gates of a colossal dam had been opened. For years the master did
nothing else: he produced oils on canvas in different formats, charcoals, watercolors,
pastels, pencil and ink drawings, chalk and sanguine in hundreds and hundreds of
sketches, all related to the bull’s world, in a ood of energy and creativity that
seemed endless. His happiness at the time can only be compared to the joviality of
a miner who has suddenly stumbled upon a sparking seam of gold in the mountains”.
The result of such unbounded production was a string of important exhibitions of the
Bullght series in the most important cities of Europe and the Americas. Among them
was a show of oils, watercolors and drawings in 1992 in Seville, during the
legendary April Fair, in the Venerable Priests Hospital – his rst important exhibition
in Spain. “As a token of gratitude for the pleasant time we had there,” as Botero
wrote in a letter to the Focus Foundation later on, the artist decided to donate this
piece to that cultural home a few months afterwards.