Soon : 29/11/2025 – 06/04/2026
The Fortress of Bard is dedicating a major exhibition project to the Colombian painter, sculptor and draughtsman Fernando Botero (1932-2023). Curated by Cecilia Braschi, the exhibition traces the artist’s entire career, highlighting the complementarity between the different techniques he practised and the motivations that guided his stylistic choices from the 1940s to his last works, realised in Munich between 2019 and 2023.
Internationally known for his figures with full and exuberant forms, Fernando Botero tried his hand at the most diverse techniques: from watercolour to pastel, from oil painting to fresco, from drawing in charcoal, ink or bistro to marble cutting and bronze casting.
Claiming to be the heir of the Renaissance artists, who were at the same time draughtsmen, painters and sculptors, the Colombian artist sought in each technique a specific contribution to the definition of his personal and unmistakable style, based on the exaltation of volumes. The limpid stroke of the drawing defined them with precision, the chromatic accords of the painting gave them strength and fullness, while the sculpture magnified them in three dimensions. In Botero’s art, every technique and every theme – even those conventionally reserved for small formats – accessed large media and thus took part in his monumental work.
With more than one hundred works, organised in seven thematic sections, the exhibition in the Cannoniere rooms retraces the main themes and motifs dear to the artist, from still life to the nude, from genre scenes to portraits, from the dialogue with the history of art to social and political denunciation, and the celebration of popular festivals and events.
Inside the exhibition there will be an inclusive tactile route for a more inclusive enjoyment of the content.
Photo. Da Velásquez. 2006, Property of Fernando Botero Foundation
