Fernando Botero’s works of art have captivated audiences around the world for decades. In 2024, a little less than a year after his death, the Colombian master is being honored in a monumental exhibition in Rome, a city he considered his second homeland.
Botero in Italy: More than just an exhibition
The exhibition “Botero in Rome” brings together eight monumental sculptures, allowing visitors to enjoy Botero’s characteristic volumetric style. These works, created between 1990 and 2009, are distributed in some of Rome’s most emblematic squares, including the Terrazza del Pincio, Piazza di San Lorenzo in Lucina, and Piazza del Popolo. Each location offers a unique dialogue between the modernity of Botero’s art and the historic architecture of the city.
Fernando Botero, who began his career as a painter, always felt a deep admiration for Italian Renaissance art. This influence is clearly reflected in Fernando Botero’s paintings and sculptures. His relationship with Italy was not only artistic; it was also personal.
Italy had a special meaning for Botero, as he traveled there at the age of twenty years old after his first solo exhibition in Bogota. There, he studied the old Italian masters. In the 1980s, Botero acquired a residence in Pietrasanta, a small town in Tuscany, known for its marble workshops and rich tradition of craftsmanship.
The Magnitude of Botero’s Artworks
Fernando Botero’s artworks are world-renowned for their distinctive and unique characteristics. In this exhibition, Botero’s human and animal figures, with their generous, rounded forms, embellish the urban landscape of Rome and remind us of the good work the master did in creating his own style: Boterismo.
This monumental exhibition, which will be on view through October 1, 2024, celebrates Botero’s legacy and reaffirms his place in the history of art worldwide.
