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Lot Essay
I paint Colombia the way I wish it were, although it is not like this. Mine is an imaginary Colombia that is at once like and unlike the real Colombia.
--Fernando Botero
Throughout Latin America, children sing a rhyme about "el patio"--the ubiquitous part of almost every traditional home where nature reigns, albeit in a domestic locale--its wildness somewhat tamed but no less grand. The children's simple song succinctly describes this very singular place as private yet just like any other outdoor space where nature's forces prevail. Part of the colonial architectural legacy, the patio in essence dates back to earlier Mediterranean cultures--the Greeks and Romans whose architectural and engineering wonders survive to this date. The patio is an Eden--a place of fleeting contemplation within the natural world.
Fernando Botero celebrates this distinctive natural enclosure in several compositions that are dazzling variations on the color green. The Patio (2000) is one such wondrous study on the patios and houses that were familiar to him as a child. The artist's hometown of Medellín with its neighboring mountains, massive ceiba trees that line the Medellín River banks, its low built houses with red-tiled roofs, has figured in numerous works. Recognizable too are the rich colors and verdant fertile geography of this serene place that is at once real but also an impossible fantasy. From its streets one could smell the intoxicating scent of exotic flowers--roses, geraniums and heliotropes--emanating from the patios of many homes. In lush milieus like this, with creatures like the plump parrot, the flourishing ceiba and banana trees, the artist alludes to his personal past and his love for the natural realm as well as his nostalgia for his home.
--Fernando Botero
Throughout Latin America, children sing a rhyme about "el patio"--the ubiquitous part of almost every traditional home where nature reigns, albeit in a domestic locale--its wildness somewhat tamed but no less grand. The children's simple song succinctly describes this very singular place as private yet just like any other outdoor space where nature's forces prevail. Part of the colonial architectural legacy, the patio in essence dates back to earlier Mediterranean cultures--the Greeks and Romans whose architectural and engineering wonders survive to this date. The patio is an Eden--a place of fleeting contemplation within the natural world.
Fernando Botero celebrates this distinctive natural enclosure in several compositions that are dazzling variations on the color green. The Patio (2000) is one such wondrous study on the patios and houses that were familiar to him as a child. The artist's hometown of Medellín with its neighboring mountains, massive ceiba trees that line the Medellín River banks, its low built houses with red-tiled roofs, has figured in numerous works. Recognizable too are the rich colors and verdant fertile geography of this serene place that is at once real but also an impossible fantasy. From its streets one could smell the intoxicating scent of exotic flowers--roses, geraniums and heliotropes--emanating from the patios of many homes. In lush milieus like this, with creatures like the plump parrot, the flourishing ceiba and banana trees, the artist alludes to his personal past and his love for the natural realm as well as his nostalgia for his home.