nd endlessly repetitive life of the small towns of the interior of the country that provide immeasurable fascination for Botero. Although he grew up in Medellin, he and his family would spend parts of the summers in a village at some distance from the city. This place, El Escorial, remains today fairly similar to its aspect of the 1930s. In many of his paintings Botero recalls both the mundane and the extraordinary events of life in such a town. In a painting such as the 1995 House, a woman stands in her doorway observing the passing scene. Nothing seems to change, but we know that any instant something amazing - wonderful or horrifying - could happen. In a 1994 composition we observe just such an occurrence. The Woman Falling from a Balcony portrays a young woman, dressed only in a green slip and green highheeled shoes, flying through the air as she is observed by a man standing below. Does this represent a terrible accident, a suicide or a vision of the observer? We can only know the ultimate outcome in our imaginations. In paintings such as this Botero seems to be creating visual analogues to the extraordinary imagination of Gabriel Garca Mrquez who, in his novels and short stories, has created a world that may be described as both banal and wondrous. The imagination of the painter, like that of the writer, conjures up fantastical happenings in village settings in which, seemingly, little or nothing changes throughout the years. ...
