Facciamoci sorprendere - Blue Liguria - Sagep

lue
storie
do, from these two brothers. This bit
of information is published in
Genealogia de Antioquia, a book
which holds the history of every
family of the Colombian province in
which I was born.” This is what
Fernando Botero, tells us. The
famous artist is spending the
summer in Pietrasanta, in his villa
immersed in the greenery on a hill
covered in olive groves under the
sight of a rook that dates to the
Lombard invaders of the Roman
empire. In the workshops of this
town near Versiglia, on the eastern
borders of Liguria, Botero founds his
sculptures, and—taken as he is by a
parallel passion for painting which
knows no season and cannot be
abandoned not even for a moment—
spends the rest of the day painting
and setting up seducing new tales on
canvas. The same rite is repeated in
Paris, New York, and Montecarlo, and
namely everywhere he goes, even
during some of his outings at sea in
his personal “boat” which is outfitted
for his needs. But for him, work is
pure entertainment.
In all of these circumstances his
characters take form and substance
characterized by a placid obesity
which affects even the objects
around them, the room that contain
98
Nato a Medellin (Colombia) nel
1932, cresciuto in un’agiata e
colta famiglia cattolica di origine
ligure, Fernando Botero vive tra
Bogotà, New York, Parigi e
Pietrasanta, in Toscana, dove
fonde le sue sculture. Legato alla
tradizione popolare e all’ambiente
tipico dell’America Latina, la sua
pittura si ispira anche al
Rinascimento italiano, conosciuto
e studiato in uno dei suoi primi
viaggi studio in Italia, negli anni
Cinquanta. Sopra, “Tavola da
cucina” (olio su tela, 2002).
Born in Medellin (Colombia) in
1932, and raised in a well-off,
cultured Catholic family of
Ligurian origin, Fernando Botero
now resides between Bogotà,
New York, Paris, and Pietrasanta,
in Tuscany, where he casts his
sculptures. With its ties to the
peasant tradition and typical
environment of Latin America, his
painting is also inspired by the
Italian Renaissance, which he saw
and studied during one of his first
study trips to Italy in the fifties.
Above, “Kitchen Table” (oil on
canvas, 2002).
scorre il resto della giornata a disegnare
e a impostare nuovi seducenti racconti
sulla tela. E un simile rito si ripete a Parigi,
a New York, a Montecarlo, ovunque
egli si trovi, magari anche nel corso di
qualche uscita in mare sulla personale
“barca” attrezzata alla bisogna.
In tutte queste circostanze prendono
forma e sostanza i suoi personaggi caratterizzati
da una placida obesità che
coinvolge anche gli oggetti di contorno,
le stanze che li contengono, il paesaggio
che li asseconda. Da un simile connubio
emerge un’armonia edenica che chiama
in causa la nostalgia del tempo e del luogo
smarriti per noi con l’infanzia. Infatti
le sue figure si specchiano in una connotazione
esagerata insita nella tradizione
popolare e nell’ambiente tipici dell’America
Latina e che abbiamo imparato a conoscere
per esempio attraverso i romanzi
di Gabriel García Márquez. Comunque
un simile approccio creativo trova un’ulteriore
giustificazione nella continua ricerca
di un equilibrio formale che riguarda
i volumi e il loro rapporto con lo
spazio, un equilibrio che viene esaltato
nelle sculture allorché il colore viene sostituito
da una sintesi compositiva che
trasferisce il fascino recondito della favola
nella bronzea fissità del mistero. Fissità
di volti ed essenzialità di forme. Così
la sua crescita cognitiva affinatasi a
Firenze nella seconda metà degli anni
Cinquanta a contatto di alcuni capolavori
del Rinascimento nostrano e corroborata
altrove da ulteriori sguardi rivolti
a Vermeer, Rubens, Rembrandt e Velázquez
(tanto per fare alcuni nomi), ha trovato
nella terza dimensione nuovi agganci
che conducono agli egizi, agli
etruschi prima di soffermarsi magari sull’opulenza
di un Maillol. Comunque, alla
fine di ogni percorso indagatore, incontriamo
sempre Botero: grazie a lui lo
sguardo del nostro tempo può nutrirsi di
frutti i cui semi provengono da una cultura
che ci appartiene nell’intimo e continua
ad affascinarci. E poi c’è quell’aggancio
dei due Botero (o Bottero) che
con lui rinnovano l’ideale legame con la
Liguria: l’agognato e probabilmente mai
raggiunto filone aureo oggi si specchia e
rinnova l’incanto nelle straordinarie opere
dell’augusto discendente.
them, and the landscapes that back
them up. From a similar marriage
come an Eden-like harmony which
calls to the nostalgia of the times,
and of places lost for us since our
childhood. In fact his figures are
mirrored in an exaggerated
connotation that is inherent in folk
traditions and typical environments
of Latin America, which we have
gotten to known through the novels
of Gabriel García Márquez.
All the same, a similar creative
approach finds yet another
justification in the continual seeking
of a formal equilibrium with respect
to volumes and their relationship
with space, an equilibrium which is
exalted when the sculpture and color
(an element that is narratively and
emotionally important in his
painting) are substituted by a
composition synthesis which
transfers the hidden fascination of
the tale in the bronze fixed by
mystery. Fixed in terms of faces and
essentiality of forms.
In this way his cognitive growth,
refined in Florence in the second half
of the fifties when placed in contact
with some masterpieces of our
Renaissance, and supported
elsewhere by additional glances in
the direction of Vermeer, Rubens,
Rembrandt and Velázquez ( just to
name a few), has also found in the
third dimension new trails leading to
the Egyptians and the Etruscans,
before stopping before the opulence
of a Maillol. All the same, at the end
of every investigative route, we
always find Botero. Thanks to him a
look at our times can be nourished
by the fruits whose seeds come from
a culture which belongs intimately
to us, and which continues to
fascinate us. And then there are
those ties to the two Boteros (or
Botteros) which through him renew
an ideal link to Liguria, the coveted
and probably never reached aural
thread that today is mirrored and
renewed by the enchantment of the
extraordinary works of this august
descendent.