Chapter 1
The birth of Boterismo and the secret of volume
Chapter 2
Masterpieces in 3D and sculpting the streets
Chapter 3
Reimagining the classics with a curvy twist
Chapter 4
Volume meets power, politics, and protest
YOUR GOAL
Master of The curvy world of Fernando Botero
Ch 1 · The birth of Boterismo and the secret of volume
choko The Birth of Boterismo
Shrunk the sound hole / watched the mandolin swell / volume is born!
choko Before discovering his passion for art, a young Botero trained to become a professional bullfighter in Colombia.
choko Botero strongly rejected the idea that he painted fat people, explaining that his focus was on volume and sensuality.
BETA
choko Swipe to puff up these cute figures to discover how Botero used volume for monumentality.
Fun Fact
Mandolin scale: In 1956, Botero painted a mandolin sound hole so small it made the instrument look giant.
Glossary
boterismo (noun)
An artistic style characterized by the depiction of people and objects in exaggerated, voluminous proportions. The aesthetic emerged in 1956 when Fernando Botero painted a mandolin with an unusually tiny sound hole.
An artistic style characterized by the depiction of people and objects in exaggerated, voluminous proportions. The aesthetic emerged in 1956 when Fernando Botero painted a mandolin with an unusually tiny sound hole.
Quiz
Why did Fernando Botero reject the term 'fat' to describe the figures in his paintings?
Quiz
In which country did Fernando Botero paint the famous mandolin that marked the birth of his volumetric style?
Quiz
Which European art period heavily influenced Fernando Botero's understanding of volume after he visited Florence in 1952?
choko Italian Renaissance masters taught Fernando Botero how to use three-dimensional space.
Quiz
What did Fernando Botero's uncle enroll him in during his youth in Medellín before he became an artist?
Quiz
How did Fernando Botero achieve the smooth, seamless surface texture of his paintings?
Quiz
What term is widely used to describe Fernando Botero's unique artistic style of exaggerated volume?