El arte y Escobar

“The world, ¿influenced by art?“

“El arte es espiritual, un respiro inmaterial de las dificultades de la vida.” – Fernando Botero

The latin american art is one of the most richest and multicultural diverse arts in the world, it has many different ways of expressions influenced by several cultural features of the native, colonial and african people.

Nowadays the latin american art is about the discussion of the past, the concern about the social situation and of the unfair distribution of wealth, as Carlos Amorales said:

“Tal vez lo que define al arte latinoamericano sea esa ambivalencia, es estar “en medio” en una negociación entre distintos lenguajes”

What we want to demonstrate with this is how the Latin American art focused especially on the boterismo has been a very controversial  part in the way it has been impacting the world and our society. Just a few hispanoamerican artist had created such a big impact, and one of this is the colombian Fernando Botero who is considered one of the most valued and influential latin american artist in the world.

“Latin American art continues to characterize the sense of urgency injected by political and social contexts and how art is integrated into everyday life and enters the world of the real.” (Bruguera, 1968)

What characterizes Latin American art is the way in which it reacts to the time it must wait to receive the recognition that its artistic productions deserve, just as it has done with its works Fernando Botero who on this occasion presents the death of Pablo Escobar as one of his most polemical and representative paintings at an international level Botero is an artist who has achieved so much international repercussion as a sculptor and painter since his personal style is identified with the enlargement or the deformation of volumes and as well he represents his vision in terms of political aspects. In this painting the intention of Botero was not to exalt the character or the scene, but to portray in his canvas an event linked to the recent political violence of the country, but also to show his version of the death of the drug lord, Pablo Escobar. 

Fernando Botero is an artist and sculpture who was born in the city of Medellin, Colombia in 1932. He presented his first exposition at the age of nineteen in his natal country and later moved to Europe were he studied in several academies applying his knowledge. Boteros’ work was mainly inspired by the Spanish colonial art and as being one of the most recognized exhibitors in the artistic and cultural field in Latin America he is also known for raising the voice against injustice by maintaining art in a historical and social reality line.  An example of this is one of his works, in 2004 he exhibited paintings exposing the violence that Colombia was living do to the drug cartels and the government corruption and one year later he created a representation of the American military forces abusing prisioners during the Iraqui War, the master piece was called “Abu Ghraib” and caused a big impact in the people during his first exhibition.

"The death of Pablo Escobar" is a representation of how his country has lived the situation of drug dealing

He is considered one of the most valued and influential latin american artist in the world because of his paintings and how each one of them express his thought about a social issue such as religion, family, street, bullfighting, the circus and violence. In a press conference Botero said “the volume is applied to everything, I apply the roundness to everything. My works are sensual because of this”.

Two of the most important works of Botero are “La muerte de Pablo Escobar” (1999) and “Pablo Escobar muerto” (2006), in which his goals was to represent the situation that his country was going through, do to the history of Escobar and all of his influence not just in Colombia but worldwide because of the drug dealing and the effect of it in the Latin American culture and his relation with the United States which became an affected part in a social way because of the drug dealing entering the nation.

“La muerte de Escobar”(1999)

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The oil painting “La muerte de Escobar” of Botero it’s a representation that shows how Botero’s vison was about the dead of the great drug lord Pablo Escobar, who after escaping from jail had been chased, and captured. This painting has the dimensions of (35x55) cm and uses a brilliant color and a grey sky due to the situations that was being represented; thanks to this we can understand how was life in that moment and how it felt the people about that shocking event; the master piece was created in 1999 and now a days is located in “El Museo de Antioquia” in Medellín, Colombia. The scene is in the neighborhood Los Olivos in Medellín, while bullets are going through him and he is holding a gun, he is hurt and almost falling of the ceiling just as the situation lived during December 2, 1993 when after one and half years of an intense research he was finally capature and killed by the police at his house.

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