Ángel Botello

Botello is considered one of the greatest Latin American post-modern artists and recognition and demand for his artwork continues to grow today, fetching unprecedented auction prices.

Botello and his younger brother Manuel studied during four years at the École des Beaux-Arts, from which they graduated with honors and where they excelled in drawing, painting and modeling.

The few paintings that remain of the young Botello's work in France and Spain reflect an immediate break from his strictly academic training to the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist concepts and techniques that shaped his development.

In 1939, the Spanish Civil War ended with a victory for General Francisco Franco which made it impossible to stay in Spain, Botello eventually returned to France to meet with his family who were in a refugee camp.

The community of Dominican artists included him as one of their own and many of the paintings created at this time were presented at the "Latin American Art Exposition" at the Riverside Museum in 1940.

A painting by Botello entitled 'Mother and Child' featured on an episode of Discovery Channel's Auction Kings during the show's second series achieving a price of $17,000.

In 1985, Ángel Botello, who was a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer and knowing that his life was in danger, then accelerated his artistic production pace and never surrendered to his illness.

The 33 years that Botello lived in Puerto Rico are considered the most prolific period in his artistic career, in terms of the quality of his paintings and sculptures and the quantity of artwork produced and art media used.

Ángel Botello died in San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 11, 1986 leaving behind an impressive legacy of oil paintings, lithographs, linocuts, serigraphs and bronze sculptures.