Colombian Interest

The artifacts that remain today from ancient Columbian civilizations reveal a remarkable people-who built homes that could withstand the elements in the world's wettest rain forest, carved monumental statues of their ancient ancestors and sacred spirits, and tantalized the western world with the beauty of their golden objects set with the finest emeralds. These artifacts serve not only as a testimony of the great achievements of cultures that disappeared long ago, but as patterns and inspirations for those who still carry on these craft traditions in the tropical rain forests or snow-capped mountains of what is today Columbia.

This book presents artifacts—or artefactos—from everyday life, objects that have accompanied Columbian people through the centuries, both in their earthly and spiritual activities. In both English and Spanish, the word artifact means, literally, "made with skill or art." Although all worthy of museums and galleries, these are not just exhibition pieces, nor are their makers all members of a separate artisan class. There is no Columbian home, however humble, that does not have a handmade broom, stool, basket, textile, or rustic furniture; nor is there a single Amazon Indian who cannot quickly piece together a basket from leaves found in the jungle.

Many of the crafts made today still retain a significance beyond the strictly utilitarian, from the basket holder whose hourglass shape is a fertility symbol to the stool carved by a young man as a sign of his goldwork to basketry, weaving to pottery, are an astounding body of work and provide a lesson in how people use their natural environment—and their hands—to create splendid objects and surrounds.

"The proliferation and diffusion of mestizo themes have become universal...Drawing on the historical and cultural reality of Colombia and in the best Latin American tradition, Ana Mercedes Hoyos develops her work in the labyrinth of pictorial crossbreeding-- a crossbreeding of images." In these words from the thrilling critical essay that opens this book, Ángel Kalenberg describes the evolution of this great Colombian artist and her place in world art.

This book, which represents the first comprehensive retrospective show of her painting and sculpture ever published, confirms his judgement.

It deals with a distinguished career which led the Colombian artist from her early stage of "windows" and "doors" to a series of "atmospheres," in which she seems to leap through the frames of her earlier paintings to find herself before the light that is on the other side and was merely hinted at before. The white canvases of her "atmospheres"-- luminous, sparkling and full of matter-- in turn fulfill their cycle, opening the way for a further stage which is marked by the recuperation of the object and a new and fresh approach to nature. This is the moment when her daring and unrestrained "sunflowers" appear, whose pigmentation follows the line of the great, visceral colorists, like Van Gogh and Gauguin, who define a realm where chromatic values rule with the same rights and duties as form. These give way to her recent work, which features colorful still lifes inspired by the Afro-Colombian women fruit-vendors from San Basilio de Palenque, who, with their bowls of fruit gracefully balanced on their heads, form a picturesque sight on the beaches of the fabled Caribbean port of Cartagena. In her current stage we also observe her passionate interest in the culture of this fascinating ethnic group, whose personages and customs absorb her interest and fill her canvases.

As this retrospective clearly shows, every stage of the work of Ana Mercedes is a testimony to her passion for her calling and her strong commitment to the world in which she lives.

Everything in this book invites us to marvel at the Colombian tropics. As the point of convergence of the tectonic plates, flora and fauna of three American continents, the world's two largest oceans and its most variegated mountains, it is a territory of excess. The restless lens of Aldo Brando focuses on this natural setting, furnishing us with a panoply of images that excite both the eye and the imagination. As he eminent Colombian writer Germán Arciniegas points out, this book is "a vertical exploration of a country which is the synthesis of the Americas." Novel and unique, it is a summary of fifteen years work by a photojournalist whose documentation of wild life goes beyond capturing the physical contours of the seas, islands, jungles, savannahs, mountains and inhabitants of Colombia. "It penetrates into the beauty and soul" of natural wonders, as one of the world's leading professionals in the field-- the American wildlife photographer Art Wolfe-- recognizes in his prologue. The book's five chapters are accompanied by an essay written by the Colombian journalist, Arturo Guerrero, who invites us to share in the astonishment and poetry found in nature and science. The dazzling photographs of this book evoke the magic of the tropical ecosystems of the new world, and draw near to the intimacy of nature. It also allows us to reflect upon mankind's contradictory relationship with the natural world. Professor Sir Ghillean Prance, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, writes in his introduction: "It is my hope that this book helps to encourage the conservation of Colombian ecosystems, which are a valuable resource, not only for inhabitants of that nation but also for the world." The book concludes with a heartfelt message by the Colombian poet William Ospina.

Viewed from the first tee of any one of these 50 extraordinary links, Colombia is a paradise of golf courses. World class designers have situated courses in Andean plateaus more than 6500 feet above sea level; in the hardwood forests of the coffee-growing highlands, and on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts where the fairaways are bordered with exotic flora. In a country without seasons, the sport can be played every day of the year and on every kind of grass.

This book gives a detailed look at courses in each part of the country, most near destination cities as affordable for North Americans as Florida and Arizona are. These photographs introduce a subtle, exotic golfer's Eden, an ideal landscape, a perennial flowering season and a constant tropical climate. Useful information about yardage, pars and other features are also included, together with diagrams of each course.

In this creative cookbook, the author, Chef de Haute Cuisine from the Cordon Bleu in Paris, invites readers to experiment with a sampling of the world's most imaginative, beautiful desserts. Sharing the knowledge and ingredients picked up from her travels and culinary engagements throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas, Villegas has created 70 recipes ranging from the classic and subtle to the unusual, and the ethnic to the aphrodisiac.

Are the drawings of Fernado Botero "notes" for future works? Or, as Marc Fumaroli states in this book, something different which has a goal in and of itself?

Whether choosing one or the other theory, Botero's drawings strive to regain possession of an artistic ideal which leads not so much to the finding of the evident complexity of his paintings and sculpture but rather to an approach to the problems of concept and structure in the "Boterian" world.

When these "notes" or sketches reappear in canvas or bronze, they allow a glance into the gestation of Botero's work, peeping into the intimate knowledge of his craft which has been acquired through his creative process. But, when the sketch remains there, on paper, it suddenly finds its true calling, its own "place in the world" and it is no longer necessary for it to be projected into another future work. That is why these drawings have the charm of what has been made to last as it is, in a state of grace, or in a sort of transition towards a painting.

There is no lost experience for the artist. His drawings, as well as the magnificent gallery of portraits which make up this book, testify to it. Drawings by Botero is, not only an exact expression of his aesthetics, but also a study of his figures and an inner reflection of his pictorial world, through the lessons taught by the virtuosity displayed in handling line contouring and proportions.

Giving material form in a world far removed from the transitional, the series of drawings includes portraits--half real, half imaginary--or personages to whom Botero has given ironic, critical or tender lives in that world of his that has become dear to us: the bishop, the acolyte, the bullfighter, the lovers...the gallery is endless.

As it is, critical recognition of drawing limits itself to the mere credit of its usefulness as preliminary sketching in the case of many artists. In Botero's work, however, it is related to the ability to escalate towards another artistic dimension, that which implies making vital statements and decisions within the process of creating a work of art.