Latin American Life

In the works focusing on this subject matter, Botero insists on the vitality of man that cannot be extinguished even in the direst conditions of misery, in shantytowns, in places where life has no apparent reason... In Botero's paintings there is a "people's" background, a loyalty to his own Latin-American culture, a vivid memory of his childhood fancy.

No matter how much his style has been perfected and enriched through the contact with Europe, the characters of civic and private drama, the daily grind, the whorehouses, the dancing fetes, the priests and cardinals are and continue to be tenaciously present in his work. While painted in the pink confetto atmosphere, life passes against a backdrop of sexual intercourse, music and cigarettes; it emphasizes a way to stress the inner solitude of the individual.