Fernando Botero and bikini anemia

It would be fine to forget about a ballerina with a slender neck and skinny limbs for a moment. The ballerina in the picture confidently shows the legs that look like strong pillars of the Temple of Parthenon and a belly that seems to about to burst due to a lot of fat. The flexible posture with her right arm and leg up in the air couldn’t be more stable. Encountering the ballerina whose voluptuous body shape makes her even more attractive, you can’t help smiling.

The painting called “Ballerina” is the artwork of Fernando Botero (aged 83), which has been displayed at the Hangaram Art Museum from Thursday in Seoul. Natalie Portman who won the Oscar for Best Actress with “Black Swan” in 2011 is said to have lost as much as 9 kilograms. Even an actress who has a very skinny body figure has to endure a painful process of losing weight as that’s what ballerinas do for their beauty. Breaking down the prejudice about ballerinas, however, Colombia-born Fernando Botero, the world class painter, painted the ballerina that is more friendly and realistic.

At a first glance, his paintings and sculptures can be recognized even without his signature. Common features of his works include voluptuous body shape and vivid color. Not only human bodies but also animals and musical instruments are described in a puffed-up way as if air is inflated in them. Believe it or not, he says, “I have no interest in drawing fat women.” He adds that he is only keen on expressing the beauty that the sense of volume has and a voluptuous shape can convey.

The result of a survey conducted by Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service says that the female number of anemia patients in their teens and 20s increases every July and August. This is dubbed as “bikini anemia” caused by excessive dieting in order to show off nice bikini looks. It is not the story of only young women. By this time of the year, the number of population who wages “the war against losing weight” drastically grows. Botero offers us fun and happiness with his works that interpret human bodies and express emotion in a novel manner, which is the reason his first personal exhibition in Seoul in 2009 recorded 0.2 million visitors through word of mouth. Anyone without particular knowledge in art can just go and enjoy his paintings. Characters in his works look indifferent and calm while watchers of his paintings become happy for no reason. His exhibition may be a good opportunity to reinvigorate us who have been completely exhausted by the fear of MERS.