For Botero, the bullfight is an almost sacred ritual. To attend a bullfight with him is an extremely interesting experience.The artist is in awe of the matadors, picadors and other participants in this ceremonial and they, in turn, know him and applaud his presence. Botero is highly knowledgeable about bullfighting, as he has been attending them and immersing himself in the literature, history and the gossip of the bullfight for most of his life. There have been numerous exhibitions of Botero's bullfight imagery, such as the highly successful show held at the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City in 1989. The public, whether informed or not about the art of bullfighting, remains captivated by the painter's self-renewing enthusiasm for the sport.

The mid-to-late 1980s represented a particularly fruitful time for this aspect of the artist's development. Beginning in about 1984, a steady stream of paintings, drawings and even sculptures on the theme of the corrida came from his studios in Paris, NewYork and Pietrasanta. Some of the images are panoramic themes depicting the bull ring and the excitement of the crowd as they await the usually bloody end of the event. La Plaza of 1985 is a good example in which the participants are specifically defined by the artist's brush, while the large public is reduced to a series of rounded, stylized heads. In the 1988 Patio de Caballos portraying the preparation of the horses on which the picadors will ride, we observe a 'backstage'-like informal glimpse of the arrangements for the highly stylized ceremony.

Even more compelling, however, are the portraits of bull fighters and the individualized representations of others whose profession takes them within the realm of the corrida. Such works as Antonio Ventural 'Minuto' (1988), Juan Rodríguez 'Conejo' (1988) or José Valero 'Pepín' (1988) capture the personalities of the matadors. In Encarnacion Vargas (1987) we are confronted with an exception to the ''macho'' rules of the bullfight, as Botero depicts a very serious, determined woman holding a goldcolored cape. Botero has even depicted himself as a torero in a 1988 self-portrait (in the background of this painting, several Colombian flags fly from the upper story of the bull ring).

Tragedies may occur, naturally, and these have been painted with empathy by the artist. In the 1985 Matador, a tiny skeleton-like devil appears to whisper intimations of danger or death into the ear of the bullfighter. Specific catastrophes also appear in such a work as the Death of Ramón Torres (1986), in which a bull, ridden by a triumphant death image, tramples the prone man. In the 1986 La Cornada, the fighter is wounded by the bull's horns, although no blood is seen in this characteristically benign composition.

Bull fighting is also associated with revelry, music and celebration. Botero has created a number of pictures of flamenco performances, such as the 1984 Tablao Flamenco, which captures the specifically Spanish music and dancing developed by gypsy performers of Andalusia. These images are, in a sense, continuations and enhancements of the bullfighting theme, echoing its sensuality and carnality.

In summation, the bullfighting pictures, as well as related images - those of performers in the theatrical world of the flamenco, for instance - may be viewed as paradigms of Botero's creativity. They embody both the serious and the frivolous, the triumphant and the potentially tragic aspects that have become integral parts of the rich and constantly selfrenewing visual imagination of this artist, one of the most outstanding figures in the modern tradition of Latin American painting.

Edward J. Sullivan