Fernando Botero's Style of Art - Research Paper Example

A particular artist may decide to focus on vegetation, animals or pictures with political thematic concerns and this becomes synonymous with their paintings. One artist that has a unique style is Fernando Botero; this paper will be a discussion of his style of art and an examination of other artists that influence his works. Any work of art with smooth inflated shapes and unexpected scales can easily be recognized as Fernando Botero’s. Botero always uses an innovative way to bring out unique proportions.

When asked the reason behind his style of art, Botero replies, “No, I don’t paint fat people,” (Hanstein, 49). This is despite the fact that all the people in his paintings are well-fed, chubby and corpulent. All other things in his paintings including still works are voluminous and blown out of proportion in a desirable way. Deformation as is synonymous with Botero’s works may be outrageous when used naturally, however, for Botero; it enhances a sensuous quality in his pictures and paintings (Hanstein, 49).

Various people have tried to come up with reasons behind Botero’s voluminous paintings. For example, Moravia sees some psychological factor as motivation behind the heavy limbs works of art. He feels that certain aspects of suffering were being expressed by Botero and the proportions that he employed were intended to make those sufferings painless. This may have been influenced by the revolution of Rivera and Orozco where there was declaration of war in a place where poverty, injustice, dictatorship and violence were prevalent (Hanstein, 58).

Therefore, through his huge works of art, Botero may be trying to portray the world that had become ‘enormously fat and complacent’ with various regressive events. Moravia feels that this may be Fernando Botero’s view of the world and he always tries to express it in a discreet way. However, Botero insists that his works are motivated by great passion for shapes, color and volume (Hanstein, 58). In the creation of his works, Botero pays homage to other prominent artists who tend to influence his creations.

One such artist is the French painter Eduardo Manet. Just like Manet, Botero used to make art for various museums in Europe. This is due to the fact that Botero wanted to be diverse; he was not only interested in the art of his own time but also the history of art (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 24). Latin-American folk art is also present in Botero’s art; this is evident in his use of flat, bright colors and forms that are boldly outlined. He is also famous for his formal portraits, emulated from his masters Francisco de Goya and Diego Velazquez (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 28).

His portraits of the Spanish queen Maria Luisa and her corrupt court was able to bring out atrocities in the society (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 24). In the same way, he has done a number of his own portraits and they also exhibit his form of distortion. According to Barnitz, Fernando Botero seems to have gotten a lot of inspiration from Enrique Grau, a Colombian artist born in 1920. Grau also engages in some form of distortion, a trademark in Botero’s works. In addition to this, they both involve in academic painting, Enrique has always been known to use brush strokes in his paintings and in the 1950’s, and Botero’s works were observed to be incorporating this style in his works (257). This