POSTCARD N.104 - COLOMBIA

Postcard sent on the 23rd January, received on the 18th April 2023

Postcard image: Mona Lisa and Couple Dancing by Fernando Botero 
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I have told the story before: My daughter was on holiday in Colombia and since mailing letters was too expensive and she had not enough money with her when she went to the post office, she sent some postcards to a list of friends I had given her. Of course my name was on that list too, so knowing my admiration for the works of Fernando Botero, she not only sent me this lovely postcard but also went some days later again to a post office and got me a sheet of beautiful stamps honouring the artist, on the occasion of his 90th anniversary.

My first recollection of Botero's work dates back to the eighties of last century, when Lisbon municipality organised an exhibition of the artist sculptures in what I believe is one of the most beautiful squares in the world: Praça do Comércio, in downtown Lisbon.

I remember I was totally in awe while contemplating the incredible human and animal bronze statues that filled the huge square to the joy of locals and tourists. At the time, I had to go by Praça do Comércio twice a day on my way to and from work, so I had more than a good opportunity to examine and be marvelled by those huge round and generally good humoured shapes, shinning in the early morning or late afternoon sun. 

On my travels, every now and then I come across one of his works and it's always like meeting an old friend. 

Some artists are revolutionary to the point of creating something unique, personal, unrivalled. Of course this can be said of art in general, but there are artists and there are those whose degree of uniqueness completely sets them apart from others in the compendiums of art history.... one might of course argue that all this uniqueness of style is but a way to explore the same recipe time and time again with obvious economical gain, once a certain threshold is attained…The well known Dali example springs to mind….

But before Dali the crook, there was always Dali the genious!

Picasso, Dali, Vasarely, Paula Rego, David  Hockney. to name just a well known few,.. 

Much of their work follows the same conceptual lines, themes, palettes, style, to a point of being so clearly identifiable that if the author of the piece in front of your eyes is not one such name, you feel somehow cheated, and the name of the poor painter, no matter how good he/she actually is, will never linger in your memory, overshadowed that he/she is by the monster....

Botero is one such Monster! and I would love to visit the Museum in Bogotá that bears his name to which he gave a lot of his work and personal collection.

In the meantime, I can always take a look at Marta’s card, The nice set of stamps she gave me, or the amazing fountain in campo Grande Garden, here in Lisbon, (do check by googling it, because I have never taken a photo of it).

- Covid-19, no need to tell anyone about it. all over the world, public health structures and all the vast plethora of professionals that keep them alive fought a merciless battle against a new foe, so small it could not be seen, but deadly none the less, as the 142 thousand deaths registered in Colombia up to now, so clearly illustrate.

Many were the postal administrations all over the world that issued stamps as a way of honouring all that were directly involved in the fight against the new Corona Vírus, or raising awareness on public health measures, or other public concerns, such as the tremendous effort that had to be made so that students could still have access to education when confined at home. The  10,000 Colombian Pesos stamp issued on 26AUG2020, honours this effort,  while also trying to raise funds to support the "Computers in education" programme, under the legend- “Colombia reescribe su historia - Colombia rewrites its history.

Unfortunately The origin of the Postmark is barely legible - El Poblado (Medellin) - although the  date (23JAN23) and the legend Servicio de Envios de Colombia are quite clear.