Mexico, .- The Colombian artist Fernando Botero, known internationally for his paintings of voluptuous characters, has already at his 87 years of life a documentary film that explores his work and how his experiences influenced his art.
The film, which was created under the impulse of the daughter of the painter Lina Botero and directed by Don Millar, was filmed for 19 months in nine places around the world, including Paris, Beijing and New York. at a press conference in Mexico City.
Mexico was not included in the filming despite the importance that this country had for Botero, who lived in multiple places around the world.
“Here he discovered his style during the years he came to study artists such as Rufino Tamayo and Diego Rivera, he found the importance that Mexican artists gave to his origins: he turned to his own roots and made it a fundamental part of his work. “explained Lina Botero.
In addition, in 2012 the Museum of the Palace of Fine Arts, located in the historic center of the Mexican capital, hosted one of the most important retrospectives on the work of the Colombian, who, despite his advanced age, continues to work daily.
Despite the cosmopolitan nature of the artist’s personality, MedellÃn has always been important to him, as well as having served as inspiration for a large part of his work.
He always defended that the more local the creation, the more international projection it can have, since art has the capacity, according to what Lina Botero said his father, of “preserving the collective memory of humanity”.
The film captures the essence of the painter from MedellÃn, who initially hated the film project out of modesty and fear that it was not a reliable reflection of what has been his career, of 87 years of life and 70 of artistic creation.
However, Lina Botero assured the press that “in the end she was very excited” and even “she wrote a letter to Don apologizing for the initial doubts and felt that her work was well captured, her life”.
For Lina it was complex to condense all these experiences in an hour and a half while she doubted how to get her father to let go in front of the cameras.
First, the team, together with Botero’s daughter, selected the key events of the artist’s life and then discussed how to deal with them.
“I am happy that we have been able to do it now that he is alive, working every day in his studio, and it fills me with emotion to have created this final document,” said the daughter.
As for the style of his works, perfected but permanent in time, Botero often says that “each brushstroke is a reflection” of his “artistic convictions, to change his style he would have to change his artistic convictions”.
The documentary will be presented in 38 theaters in 18 cities in Mexico starting next Friday. (EFE)
