Opera Gallery London presents Fernando Botero, the first solo exhibition in London of the celebrated Colombian artist’s work since 2015. With scenography conceived by Cécile Degos, the exhibition brings together a major selection of paintings, drawings and sculptures produced over the course of almost six decades, from the mid-1960s to the final year of the artist’s life, inviting visitors to rediscover one of the foremost figurative painters of our time. It reveals that Botero’s universe is founded neither on humour, nor caricature, but on a remarkably coherent formal investigation.
Volume is the true subject of Botero’s work–not as a stylistic device, but as a fundamental principle of representation. Botero does not simply enlarge figures and objects: he amplifies them. By altering proportion, he transforms our perception of reality. Fruit, animals, landscapes, musical instruments, human figures and everyday objects acquire an unprecedented physical presence. Their weight, density and monumentality never verge on excess; rather, they endow the world with a new intensity.