Fernando Botero: The Bullfight

This richly illustrated volume explores Colombian artist Fernando Botero’s personal and poetic vision of the bullfight – a subject rooted in Spanish tradition and reimagined through Botero’s iconic style of rotund, exaggerated forms. Published by Rizzoli in 1990, the book showcases Botero’s deep fascination with the ritual, symbolism, and spectacle of ”la corrida”, which he began exploring intensively in 1984.

Accompanied by a text from Spanish writer José Manuel Caballero Bonald, the book brings together over 200 pages of vibrant, theatrical images depicting the many characters and moments of the bullring from matadors, picadores, and banderilleros to the opening parade and the final removal of the bull from the arena. Botero’s paintings transform the traditional genre into a mythical drama, presenting a version of “reality” that is emotionally heightened and visually unforgettable.

It’s a fantastic catalog with a unique concept, offering art lovers and cultural historians a deeper understanding of Botero’s artistic universe and the pageantry of one of Spain’s most controversial traditions.