Art at the Botero Museum, Bogota - The Decisive Moment

Art at the Botero Museum, Bogota

Bogota, Colombia July 2009

This collection of photographs was taken at the Botero Museum in Bogota, Colombia in July 2009. While in Bogota, I had the great pleasure to visit the museum and its superb collection of works by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero. The works are housed in a magnificently restored colonial mansion in the heart of Bogota’s historic La Candelaria area, where the city was founded. The permanent exhibition includes more than 120 of Botero’s own paintings, drawings and sculptures as well as 85 original works by such artists as Renoir, Monet, Degas, Matisse, Miro, Chagall, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec and Dali. All this work was donated by Botero in 2000, when the museum was opened. For any visitor to Bogota, this museum is a ‘must visit’ treat which should be at the very top of the list of places to see – the next on the list being the Gold Museum.

I have included only a few of the many works on offer and so the images here reflect those pieces which I found the most attractive. I thought Botero's work was fascinating and it reminded me so strongly of the work by the British artist Beryl Cook that I wrote a short article about it on my blog. On a technical note, all these images were taken with a Canon G10; hand held without the use of flash. The sculptures were more difficult to capture in their exhibition lighting, but I think the images from the camera are pretty good under the circumstances.