Still Life

Still Life
By the end of the 60s, for Botero, still life paintings were regularly nourishing the seduction of an image that went beyond the simple composition of fruits or objects arranged on a table, often revealing a fully fledged world. The claustrophobic sense of the "scenic cube" is often overcome by the inclusion, within the painting, of a reflecting mirror, or an opening that allows the gaze to look outwards. Botero utilizes the reflections of the objects and the presence of a door on the background to lighten the architecture of the painting and to give it depth, and to create structural balances.

"When I paint an apple or an orange, I know that it will be possible to recognize them as mine and that it is I who painted them, because I seek to give to every painted element, even the simplest, a personality that comes from a profound conviction." Thus, for Botero the overriding issue is to confer an authentic image even to inanimate objects, to still lifes.