When I was told if I could review Fernando Botero’s latest work, I jumped at the chance not because I am an art connoisseur but because I have heard of his work and was curious to find out what this artist known as the ‘Picasso of Latin America’ was all about.

Fernando Botero is not just a painter but also a sculptor and draftsman. Born in Medellin, Colombia on April 19th 1932, his talent was visible from an early age, when he was 17 he wrote an article for the Medellin newspaper El Colombiano entitled ‘Picasso and the Nonconformity of Art’. In 1951, he moved to Bogota, where he had his first solo exhibition at the Leo Matiz Gallery and all his paintings were sold. He became widely known after winning first- place at the Salon de

Artistas Colombianos and then decided to continue studying art in Europe. Since then, he has held over 50 world-wide exhibitions.

Botero is known as a figurative artist, his works include still-life and landscapes though he favours situational portraiture but the painting style he is best known for was developed around 1964. Characterised by ‘inflated, rounded forms, painted with smooth, almost invisible brushstrokes’, he describes the reason for these ‘fat figures’ to use his own words by saying "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." He continues by saying “I don’t depict fat people. The deformation you see is a result of my involvement with painting.”

Botero portrays people from all walks of life and his work constantly refers to and portrays his native Colombia like his 1983 painting La Colombiana. He depicts typical settings and backgrounds of Colombian scenery. The artist spends about a month a year in his native country. Medellin has been home to both him and the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar, Botero made him the subject of one of his paintings titled ‘Death of Pablo Escobar’. His work also portrays worldwide themes include The Middle Ages, Baroque, Latin American Colonial Art to Modern avant-garde. He has been compared to Peter Paul Rubens - a 17th century artist on a number of occasions, who Botero has also admitted he admires.

Apart from being notorious for the exaggerated proportions of human and animal figures, these large, corpulent figures can be viewed as political and social commentary or satire. When accounts from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq of abuse, torture, sodomy and the suspicious deaths of prisoners came to public attention in 2004, Botero’s anger and shock with what happened was expressed in a series of more than fifty of his paintings. These drawings showed naked prisoners bound, shackled and shrouded in hoods and blindfolds as they were beaten and urinated on by American guards with dogs. For him, these pictures represent ‘a declaration about cruelty and at the same time an accusation concerning United States policy.’

By contrast, in his Circus series, Botero captures more optimistic faces as he portrays childhood visions. As he explains “I paint everything like it was a still life, with no joy or painful expressions in my circus paintings.” This is the first time in over 25 years that Botero has returned to London were his paintings were displayed for a month at the Thomas Gibson fine art gallery which is a family run business dealing strictly with Impressionists and 20th Century masters as well as Modern British and International Post War Art since their opening in 1969.The Circus features nearly 20 watercolours and oil paintings and are painted with complete mastery; here we are introduced to tightrope walkers, the lion tamer, Pierrot and Harlequins.

Having viewed his entire portfolio during my research, I can say with conviction that my favourite work from his unique collection of neo-figurative paintings is the Woman with Red Socks and Green Hot Pants on Tight Rope, one of his most recent works, showing a female tightrope walker seemingly overbalancing on her lead foot whilst being watched rather intently by a smartly dressed gentleman below. I especially like the way her head is leaning backwards and her hands are flailing as she searches for some form of support. This is an oil on canvas painting.

Fernando Botero is considered one of the most important living Latin American artists, his extensive output spans over five decades, featuring a style which has gained worldwide recognition. He now lives and works in Paris, Monte Carlo, Pietrasanta and New York.