| Latin American Botero exhibit is big, and that's no exaggeration |
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| Wednesday, 23 May 2007 | |||
When it comes to the work of Colombian artist Fernando Botero, the word is “big.”
“The Baroque World of Fernando Botero,” a retrospective of 100 paintings, sculptures and drawings, will be displayed at the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Southwest School of Art and Craft from May 26 to Aug. 19. The opening-day celebration includes music, food and Botero-related family art activities at both museums and at the Central Library. Branch libraries will hold family activities throughout June and July, and KLRN-TV will broadcast a documentary about the artist on Saturday, May 26. “This is a city whose identity is really predicated upon its Latin-ness, its Hispanidad, and Botero is one of the most popular Latin American sculptors as well as painters,” said Marion Oettinger Jr., director of the San Antonio Museum of Art. Botero is best known for his humorous paintings populated by figures of exaggerated proportion and volume. Growing up in Colombia, he was influenced by pre-Columbian and Spanish colonial art. He began his career creating illustrations for a newspaper and later studied the Old Masters in Spain. He then developed his own distinctive style, which grew out of his interest in the Baroque, Oettinger said. “He takes artists he admires, (Pablo) Picasso or (Diego) Velázquez or (Francisco de) Goya, and restates them,” Oettinger said. “Not only does (the exhibit) provide a portrait of Latin-American life and a window on that world, but it also offers new insight into the way things are rendered.” Jessica Belasco | 210SA contributor |
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