Speaking with Botero.

• Author: Escallon, Ana Maria
• Position: Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero - Interview

How did you know you wanted to be an artist?

I began to paint--and I already knew I wanted to be an artist--when I was thirteen or fourteen Years old I have some watercolors from those days in which I was painting volumetric forms even I before I knew the importance of volume in painting. To put it simply, it was my natural bent.

What have you drawn from Colombian art?

One component in all my work is colonial art. In the 1960s, 1 was strongly attached to that art. My interest in flat-finish surfaces comes from colonial art, and part of that style of finis], in my painting and sculpture is a reflection of the art that I was exposed to as a child; it was the art you find in churches. It was the ritual of daily mass that I lived until I was twelve years old, and that was the way, I think, that I got the idea that smooth surface is linked to beauty in art.

And pre-Columbian art? I also take a lot from it. This is truer of my sculpture than my painting, because there are practically no models for painting. A direct inspiration, however, from pre-Columbian art would not be accurate to say. My interest in pre-Hispanic art shows through in everything I do.

How do you deal with the history of art when you look at your own story?

I am an artist from the Third World, or better put an artist who was not born among museums, not born into a well-established tradition. This makes me see things, from the start, with new eyes. Most European artists are tired, starting on the day they are born, with the world of art. To them, everything has already been done. They think you have to pull back so many curtains to appreciate or interpret art. Not me. I see without prejudgments, with clean eyes. My fresh eyes make things appear simpler. Basically, I invent everything from the start. And I had to invent everything because there was nobody to lead me. I asked myself, "Let's see, what is this business of painting?" You have to use colors, because painting is color. In addition, I need forms. I have a subject. In the end, all of this produces an expression. I invented painting because I had no tradition in it. That is bad, on one hand, but at the same time, it is very good. I had the fortune of always being self-taught.

What do you mean self-taught? I taught myself. In Colombia, I worked without a teacher. After I got to Madrid, I attended the Academy of Fine Arts for one year, and I saw the professor once.

What do you recall from that meeting? He came into class...