The Botero Museum also known as Museo Botero is a museum located in Bogotá, Colombia. It houses one of Latin America's most important international art collections. It sees over 500,000 visitors annually, and of those 2,000 students per month. Being in

La Candelaria La Candelaria is the 17th locality of Bogotá, Colombia. A historic neighborhood in the city's downtown, it is the equivalent to the ''Old City'' in other cities. The architecture of the old houses, churches and buildings has Spanish Colonial styl ...

neighborhood of Bogotá, the museum is in close proximity to other important landmarks like the

Luis Ángel Arango Library Luis Ángel Arango Library (Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango or BLAA) is a public library located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is one of the largest and most important libraries in the world. It was founded in 1958 as a small library with a few books o ...

and the Gold Museum of Bogotá.

History

Since the late 1960s, Colombian artist Fernando Botero had been a noted art collector. Initially of

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

pieces, later of colonial art and more recently of drawing, painting and universal modern sculpture. Until 1999, all of his collections were scattered throughout his properties in New York, Paris, Monte Carlo and

Pietrasanta Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where the ...

, as well as in a Swiss bank deposit in Bogotá. Since the mid-1990s, Botero had raised the possibility of donating his entire art collection to the

Museum of Antioquia The Museum of Antioquia (''Museo de Antioquia'') is an art museum in Medellín, Colombia. It houses a large collection of works by Medellín native Fernando Botero and Pedro Nel Gómez. It was the first museum established in Antioquia depar ...

in Medellín. However, the slowness in making decisions by the Antioquia authorities led him to accept the proposal of the then mayor of Bogotá,

Enrique Peñalosa Enrique Peñalosa Londoño (born 30 September 1954) is a Colombian politician. He was mayor of Bogotá from 1998 until 2001 and elected again in 2015 for the 2016–2019 term. He was prominently featured in the Panama Papers for use of off-s ...

, to donate his collection to Bogotá. In the year of 2000, the Colombian artist

Fernando Botero Fernando Botero Angulo (born 19 April 1932) is a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor, born in Medellín. His signature style, also known as "Boterismo", depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political ...

donated 208 art pieces, 123 of his own making and 85 of other international artists, to the Bank of the Republic. The Museum is administered by Banrepcultural. With this collection, the Botero Museum was founded in the neighborhood of

, the historic center of Bogotá, in a colonial mansion that was acquired by the Bank of the Republic and made suitable to house the art collection by Fernando Botero himself. Since November 1, 2000, the museum has been open to the public free of charge. In the same year, Botero's collection arrived in Colombia after an exhibition at the ''Fundación Santander Central Hispano'' in Madrid (Spain). After donating these works to Bogotá, at the request of the Antioquia authorities, the artist also decided to donate a significant set of pieces of his authorship to the Museum of Antioquia, in addition to a set of sculptures for the

Botero Plaza Botero Plaza, surrounded by the Museum of Antioquia and the Rafael Uribe Uribe Palace of Culture, is a 7,000 m2 outside park that displays 23 sculptures by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, who donated these and several other artworks for the mus ...

(in front of said Museum), in Medellin. Although most of the collection of international artists had been donated by Botero to Bogotá, he decided to put together a new set of about 21 pieces ( Matta, Lam, Stella,

Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

, among others), to donate to the Museum of Antioquia.

Collection

The museum consists 123 works of Fernando Botero and 85 of other artists for a total of 208 works of art. Highlights of the permanent collection include works by

Balthus Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (February 29, 1908 – February 18, 2001), known as Balthus, was a Polish-French modern artist. He is known for his erotically charged images of pubescent girls, but also for the refined, dreamlike quality of his image ...

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Sonia Delaunay Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

, and

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

The collection of works made by Fernando Botero

The collection of works by Fernando Botero includes numerous oil paintings, drawings, pastels, sanguines and sculptures made by him, especially during the most recent decades. His earliest production (in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s) is not represented in this museum. Works from his initial artistic periods can be found in the permanent exhibition of the

Colombian National Museum The National Museum of Colombia ( es, Museo Nacional de Colombia) is the National Museum of Colombia housing collections on its history of Colombia, history, art of colombia, art, culture of Colombia, culture.Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

's ''

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known ...

'' and a part of the first series on violence in Colombia (''Pablo Escobar'', '' Tirofijo'', ''Carrobomba'', ''La massacre de Mejor Esquina'', etc.), among others. The latest series on violence in Colombia is part of the collection of the National Museum of Colombia. Likewise, on the second floor of the museum there is a room dedicated to small and medium-sized sculptures, made of bronze and marble.

The Botero Museum in the Latin American context

The Botero Museum's modern art collection is valuable in Latin America. Along with the National Museum of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires, the

São Paulo Museum of Art The São Paulo Museum of Art ( pt, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or ') is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo B ...

, the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo, it constitutes, in its kind, one of the most important art collections in Latin America.

Gallery

File:Claude Monet - El Geldersekade de Amsterdam en invierno.jpg,

. ''The

Geldersekade De Geldersekade linksonder op de Vogelvluchtkaart van Cornelis Anthonisz uit 1544. The Geldersekade is a canal and a street in Amsterdam that connects the Nieuwmarkt with the Prins Hendrikkade. The Geldersekade is in the easternmost part of De ...

in Amsterdam, in winter'', 1871-1874. File:Eugène Boudin - El puerto de Trouville, 1884.jpg,

Eugène Boudin Eugène Louis Boudin (; 12 July 18248 August 1898) was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors. Boudin was a marine painter, and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores. His pastels, summa ...

. ''The port of Trouville'', 1884. File:Gustave Caillebotte - La llanura de Gennevilliers.JPG,

Gustave Caillebotte Gustave Caillebotte (; 19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early ...

. ''The plain of Gennevilliers'', 1884. File:Camille Pissarro - Le Louvre, soleil couchant, gelée glanche, 2e série - 1402.jpg,

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

. ''The Louvre, misty morning'', 1901. File:Edgar Degas - Mujer en el baño.jpg,

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

. ''Woman in the bathroom'', 1902. File:Museo de Botero.jpg,

. ''A family'', 1989. File:Busto retrospectivo de mujer (1933) Salvador Dalí.jpg,

. ''Busto retrospectivo de mujer, 1933. File:Lascar Museo Botero (4587575468).jpg, This Botero sculpture greets patrons as they come in the front door.

References

External links

Museo Botero - Bank of the Republic of ColombiaMuseo Botero
within

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

* {{Authority control Museums in Bogotá Art museums and galleries in Colombia