Fernando botero timeline of the civil war
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This article is adapted from AQ&#;s special report on Latin America&#;s election super-cycle
Fernando Botero’s art is instantly recognizable on account of its fulsome figures. The late Colombian painter and sculptor () is famous for hundreds of portraits, still lifes and sculptures that evoke everyday scenes—but many of his best, and least-appreciated, works are overtly political.
The son of a seamstress and a muleteer, Botero came of age during Colombia’s undeclared civil war, known as La Violencia (). He sold his first piece of art at 16, and worked as a newspaper illustrator while still in high school. During the first half of his prolific career, Botero gained a reputation for humorous refashionings of Renaissance masterpieces such as Pope Leo X (), The Arnolfini Portrait () and the Mona Lisa (). He also used his signature style to satirize the pomposity of Latin American clergymen, generals and dictators.
Although politics was not then a major theme in his art, Botero made powerful works that record and lament the Colombian conflict. For example, his mural The Massacre of the Innocents () takes a biblical theme explored by the Renaissance master Peter Paul Rubens and brings it to the Colombian context. And in Guerra (
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The 5 Colombian Artists Changing Art History
Between the desire to denounce the politics of a turbulent country and the exploration and celebration of identity, Colombian art is incredibly intense. But which artists have changed, and continue to change, the history of art? Paintings, installations, sculptures and drawings, discover the five famous Colombian artists that you absolutely must know!
1. Fernando Botero, the most famous of all Colombian artists
How can one talk about Colombian art without mentioning Fernando Botero? In addition to being undeniably the most famous artist of Colombia, he is perhaps the most recognized in all of Latin America. Thanks to his diverse approaches, Fernando Botero was the first to spread Colombian art throughout the world. If Botero&#;s work has contributed so much to the history of art, it is also because it is so diverse. He is particularly known for his talent to realize scenes of daily life, portraits or nudes of women. But he is also known for having tackled ardent political subjects, such as the criminal violence of parts of Colombian society.
2. Doris Salcedo, the art of identity and collective
Plastic and multimedia artist, Doris Salcedo is one of the first Colombian artists to have gained international recogni