Colombia

Fernando Botero's self-identification as a man and artist from and of Colombia is the single most outstanding characteristic of his art. In fact, one could cite works in virtually every genre and analyse them according to the specifically Colombian elements present in them. We have seen already how in his religious compositions, such as Our Lady of Colombia, the flag connotes national identity. Banners with the national colours rise from the Virgin's feet, and the Christ Child holds a tiny Colombian flag.

National flags make their appearance in many other works by the artist, and there are numerous instances in which the national colours are introduced in more subtle ways. In the 1989 Man with a Dog, for example, the sitter stands within the courtyard of a colonial house of the type that could easily be seen in any village or town in Colombia-or in the colonial district of Bogotá known as La Candelaria.

In the 1983 painting titled La Colombiana (Colombian Woman), a woman in a yellow dress stands just inside the door of a house that could be located anywhere in the country. In a 1994 composition we observe just such an occurrence. Woman Falling from a Balcony portrays a young woman, dressed only in a green slip and green high-heeled shoes, flying through the air as she is observed by a man standing below. Does this represent a terrible accident, a suicide or a vision of the observer? We can only learn the ultimate outcome in our imaginations. In paintings such as this Botero seems to be creating visual analogues of the extraordinary imagination of Gabriel García Márquez, who, in his novels and short stories, has created a world that may be described as both mundane and wondrous.