Latin American Artists in Their Studios

Colombian painter Fernando Botero, one of the 15 artists interviewed in these informal, ingratiating profiles, sets a keynote when he urges Latin American artists to explore their roots and to take their whole continent as a theme, instead of blending into the international movement. A pre-Columbian influence pervades Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo's coloristic meditations on the human form and the cosmos and the Argentine Antonio Segui's figurative expressionist canvases. Chilean surrealist Roberto Matta draws inspiration from Mayan conceptions of the shape and architecture of the universe, while the Mexican Francisco Toledo celebrates the cycles that unite us with Earth in myth-drenched frescoes, graphics, ceramics and sculpture. There is much diversity here, from the Chilean Claudio Bravo's classic religious allegories to the Venezuelan Jesus Rafael Soto's abstract paintings and kinetic sculpture. Former House & Garden editor Colle, who lives in Mexico, wrote Frida's Fiestas. (Sept.)