In Spain, specifically in Barcelona, there is a cat by Fernando Botero.
A huge, chubby, fat, chubby-cheeked and gorgeous cat.
A cat with all four paws on the ground.
Since 2003 it seems that it has been permanently installed in the Raval square, but previously it was for a time in the Ciutadella park, not far from the zoo, exactly since 1987, the year in which the City Council bought it from the Colombian artist.
Then in 1992 it was moved to the Olympic Stadium.
After a while, after the Olympic Games, they found another location for it and it ended up not far from Colón and Las Ramblas, in Plaça de Blanquerna, next to Les Drassanes.
He stayed there for eleven years, before moving back to a pleasant square, full of trees, lifelong neighbors, emigrants and tourists.
He is very successful, tourists (and non-tourists) take pictures of him, pose next to him leaning against him and take selfies.
THE gluttonous cat.
But this is not Botero's only cat.
He has painted and sculpted other animals, dogs, horses.
Let's limit ourselves to saying that Botero's cats, despite their size, their roundness, are not caricatures, they are solid and very catlike.
In addition to the one from Barcelona, we have found three other enormous cats by Fernando Botero walking around the world in places as diverse as Yerevan, Armenia; in front of a luxurious building on Park Avenue, New York, and the last one in Medellín, Colombia, which the artist gave to the city three years ago to celebrate his 80th birthday.
Two of them are sitting (Yerevan and Medellin) and two are standing (New York and Barcelona), but none weigh less than a ton. They are important cats.
FAMILY SCENE 1969.
BOTERO SQUARE, MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA.
YEREVAN, ARMENIA.
Apart from sculptures, the artist has also portrayed cats in family groups, with a person or alone, as can be seen in some of the photos that we include.
Fernando Botero was born in Medellin in 1932.
His first known works are the illustrations he published in the literary supplement of the newspaper El Colombiano, from his hometown.
He made his first exhibition at the age of 19 in Bogotá.
After a season in Europe, where he lived in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and Florence, he traveled to Mexico, New York and Washington.
No matter how much he moved, he never stopped painting despite his limited financial resources.
On his return to Colombia, he won the second prize at the X Salón de Artistas Colombianos and his painting “La camera degli esposi”, the first prize at the following edition of the Salón in 1958.
WOMAN WITH CAT.
GIRL WITH CAT.
Between 1961 and 1973 he settled in New York, before moving to Paris.
He began sculpting in 1964, but it was not until 1975, at his residence in Pietrasanta, that he fully devoted himself to this technique.
He exhibited his sculptures at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1977.
Fifteen years later, in 1992, his massive characters occupied the Champs Elysées and the following year, Fifth Avenue in New York, places in Buenos Aires and Madrid.
RAMBLA DEL RAVAL, BARCELONA.
He is one of the most sought-after artists in the world, but he has never stopped standing up against injustice.
A few years ago, in 2005, he presented a series of paintings at the Venice Palace in Rome about the torture carried out by US Marines in the Iraqi prison of Abu Ghraib.
In an interview granted by the artist to Elena Cué in February 2015 on the occasion of the Arco Fair, in which Colombia was the guest country, Fernando Botero said: «It is not possible for art to solve situations that are basically political. The artist shows a situation that remains a permanent complaint. No one would remember the bombing of a small Basque village, Guernica, if it weren't for Picasso."
THE HOUSE OF MARIDUQUE.
