Fernando Botero

With a style of its own – “Boterismo”, which is characterised by the volume the artist gives to each feature he paints or sculpts – Botero’s work exudes strength, exuberance and sensuality.

(1932) From a young age, he manifested a high interest in art that grew until it became his greatest passion. The artistic creations of Fernando Botero carry with them an irreverent interpretation of the figurative trend, called "boterismo", where the volume becomes the absolute protagonist of his creations. Nowadays, his unique style has made him one of the most admired and recognized contemporary artists of the international artistic field.

In 2012, Fernando Botero donated his Vía Crucis series to the Museo de Antioquia in Medellín. Now, to mark his 90th birthday, the artist wanted to turn his masterpiece into an edition that pays tribute to the people of Colombia. This is the art book that connects the history of art with the master’s memories.

A limited and numbered edition of 2,998 copies which includes the complete series of 34 drawings and 27 paintings (61 works in total) in which the artist depicts his personal interpretation of the Stations of the Cross.

Botero’s dedication is found in every detail of this artist’s book, created in collaboration with Colombia’s Museum of Antioquia (Museo de Antioquia) and presented in a case-display. Crafted in methacrylate with a removable, passion-red side frame and the artist’s signature in relief, it provides access to the two volumes – an open window dedicated to the magnificence of the Colombian master's art.

The Art Book features the 34 drawings from the series reproduced with full faithfulness to the originals, executed in pencil and watercolour on paper. Each print is paired with a quote from the Bible, printed on semi-transparent red paper. The cover of this bilingual edition, in Spanish and English, is a never-before-published image, printed on canvas: a silhouetted detail of the oil painting Cerca de la Cruz (2010), from the artist’s private collection.

The cornerstones of Botero’s work are analysed in detail in the articles in the Study Book. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former director general of UNESCO, discusses the artist’s enormous contribution to the universalisation of culture and art, and David Ebony, American critic, reviews the keys to Boterism.

The Museum of Antioquia’s director general, María del Rosario Escobar, offers a broad overview of the transformation of Medellín and Botero’s role in this change. And Camilo Castaño, the museum’s curator, takes us on a journey through the artist’s work and analyses the series in depth, focusing on each of the 34 drawings.

In the privacy of his studio in Montecarlo, the art of Fernando Botero comes into being; a unique, unmistakable style that has turned the Colombian maestro into the quintessential painter and sculptor of volume, as well as one of the most highly-regarded contemporary artists in the international art world.

ARTIKA pays tribute to him with Botero’s Women, an artist’s book devoted to one of his most recurring themes: the female form. A single, numbered, limited edition of 2,998 copies, created in collaboration with Botero.

The work is presented in a case-sculpture, designed with a slight relief effect in honour of the artist’s characteristic style, and which reproduces a detail from the painting Head (2006). The two volumes contained inside, when they are placed side by side, show the same image.

The Art Book, which contains 45 plates featuring drawings of many different female figures, evocative, suggestive, sensual and expressive, and accompanied by extracts from short stories by Botero. Meanwhile the Study Book, which explores in depth the work of the maestro and encompasses the scope of this world famous painter, was written by the Professor of Art History Lourdes Cirlot.