Botero a love letter to latin america

Opera Gallery Miami is thrilled to present its solo show on renowned artist Fernando Botero: A Love Letter to Latin America, in conjunction with Miami Art week. With this exhibition, we celebrate the ubiquity of Botero's oeuvre and explore the intrinsic role Latin America has in the artist's life and work.


Born in 1932 in Medellín, Colombia, Fernando Botero has demonstrated his mastery of form and content for decades through his signature “Boterismo” style. His situational portraiture rendered with exaggerated volume seamlessly ranges in tone from richly sensual to starkly political. With depictions of matadors, ballerinas, priests, middle-class families and more, Botero's evocative paintings, drawings and sculptures tell a nuanced story about the cast of characters, both real and imagined, who parade through the artist's social critique interpretation of society. With his singular artistic vision, Botero invites us to revel in life's pleasure and pain while questioning society and effectively redefining fixed beliefs about the aesthetics of proportion and scale.

Because art is always an exaggeration; the painter exaggerates the color or the shape or exaggerates the line. There is always an exaggeration.”

Fernando Botero

Botero

En la plaza
1987
Oil on canvas
182.9 x 130.5 cm

Botero

A Family
2016
Oil on canvas
163.2 x 190.2 cm

“I paint what I see, what moves me. I don't try to create something that is purely aesthetically pleasing.”

Fernando Botero

Botero

Still Life with Fruit Bowl
1999
Oil on canvas
98 x 135 cm

Botero

Still Life with Coffee Pot
2002
Oil on canvas
38 x 33 cm

Botero

Paisaje
2004
Oil on canvas
76 x 62 cm

Botero

Woman on Horse
2015
Bronze
128 x 81 x 46 cm

“For my entire life, I've felt as if I had something to say in terms of sculpture. It's a very strong desire...Pleasure—that of touching the new reality that you create. Certainly, in a painting, you give the illusion of truth, but with sculpture, you can touch its reality. . . If I paint a knife in my pictures, it's imaginary, but if I sculpt it, then the sensation of having it in your hand is real— it's an object from your spirit, it's a sensual experience even in its execution. It brings a special joy to touch the material with your hands.”

Fernando Botero

Botero

The Saint
2014
Oil on canvas
186.7 x 100.3 cm

“All my life, my girlfriends are always skinny. Beauty in art has nothing to do with beauty in reality. Why do you like primitive art? Because there is beauty in the deformity. Sometimes paintings that people consider realistic are not at all. Raphael figures look realistic, but in real life, they were deformed.”

Fernando Botero

Botero

Reclining Woman with Apple
1990
White Carrara Marble
34.9 x 59.1 x 24.8 cm

Botero

Lady in Profile
1983
Oil on canvas
88.9 x 70.2 cm

Botero

Woman with Flowers
2023
Watercolor on paper
41 x 31 cm

Botero

Man and Woman
2022
Watercolor on paper
30.9 x 40.64 cm

Botero


Man and Woman with Umbrella
2023
Watercolor on paper
41 x 31 cm

Botero

The Singer
2023
Watercolor on paper
41 x 31 cm

“Sketching is almost everything. It is the painter's identity, his style, his conviction, and then color is just a gift to the drawing.”

Fernando Botero

Botero

Gatto Piccolo (con coda lungha)
2023
Bronze
25 x 71 x 34 cm

“Art is the language that transcends borders and speaks to the souls of people from all walks of life.”

Fernando Botero

Botero

Circus Band
2008
Oil on canvas
184 x 141 cm

Botero

Two Guitarists
2018
Oil on canvas
125 x 95 cm

Botero

Portrait of Picasso
1998
Oil on canvas
187 x 128 cm

Botero

Donna seduta su cubo
2006
Bronze
43 x 27 x 32 cm

“An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it.”

Fernando Botero

“Sculptures permit me to create real volume one can touch the forms, one can give them smoothness, the sensuality that one wants.”

Fernando Botero

Botero

Couple
2002
Bronze
65 x 50 x 18 cm

Botero

Reclining Woman
2007
Bronze
114.3 x 47 x 47 cm

“I create my subjects somehow visualizing them in my style. I start as a poet, put the colors and composition down on canvas as a painter, but finish my work as a sculptor taking delight in caressing the forms.”

Fernando Botero

Botero

Picador
2002
Oil on canvas
193 x 136 cm

Botero

Uccello
2006
Bronze
36 x 36 x 24 cm

Botero

Sphinx
2020
Bronze
253 x 218.1 x 278.1 cm

Botero

Circus People
2008
Oil on canvas
132 x 109 cm

Botero

Clown In White
2008
Oil on canvas
143 x 100 cm

“The circus allows one to be logical and unreal at the same time. In the circus, all is possible: there can be a man with two heads or a character with a green face.”

Fernando Botero

Botero

Leda and the Swan
2006
Bronze
71 x 127 x 52 cm

Image copyright Enrique Palacio


One of the most celebrated contemporary Latin American artists, Fernando Botero was born in Medellin in 1932. After a stint at a matador school, Botero decided art was his true calling and in 1948, aged 16, he had his first exhibition. In the early 1950s Botero travelled through Europe, studying art at Madrid's Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, followed by a spell in Paris spent absorbing the works of the Old Masters at the Louvre. He continued to Florence, where he studied the frescoes of the Italian Renaissance, discovering techniques from a bygone era. From 1961 to 1973, he resided and worked in New York city before dividing his time between Paris, Monaco, and Tuscany. He passed away in Monaco on September 15, 2023, at the age of 91.


Botero gained widespread recognition for his unique artistic approach characterized by the use of smooth, inflated forms and surprising variations in proportions. This distinctive style was a manifestation of the artist's relentless pursuit of imbuing volume with a tangible and authentic presence. His body of work encompasses a wide array of subjects, ranging from everyday life in Colombia to iconic art historical references like the Mona Lisa, and the injustices stemming from the abuse of authority.


Botero created monumental sculptures for public spaces in many major cities, including New York (Park Avenue), Paris (Champs-Élysées), Rome and Monte Carlo. His works are found in many important private and public collections, such as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.); Ho-am Museum (Seoul); Israel Museum (Jerusalem); Kunsthalle Nuremberg (Nuremberg); Museo d'Arte Moderna del Vaticano (Rome); Museum Moderne Kunst (Vienna); Neue Pinakothek (Munich); Staatgalerie Moderne Kunst (Munich); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Tel Aviv); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); The Museum of Modern Art (New York); and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York).