#art, Not an Artist: Romero Britto; What do You Think?

If you look for Romero Britto on Wikipedia you will find the following statements:

«Romero Britto (born October 6, 1963[1]) is a Brazilian artist, painter, serigrapher, and sculptor.[2] He combines elements of cubism, pop art, and graffiti painting in his work, using vibrant colors and bold patterns as a visual expression of hope, dreams, and happiness.«

Incredible! But none of that is true. I know. I lived in Miami when Britto began to climb his road to fame as a merchandiser, a businessman and an artisan. None of those functions that he carries out, majestically, makes him an artist, a painter or a sculptor. There is nothing related to cubism in his simple childish colouring book figures. Do any of them even come close to the shadow of Picasso or Braque? No…

His «paintings» have no composition. His colours are simple primary colours taken directly from the tubes. Comparing it to pop art? No way! His work is as far from pop art as he is from the artists that created the greatest pop art we can refer to. Artists like Peter Max, Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein. And related to graffiti? Not at all. Graffiti artists always have a message, and many of them are quite talented. In my opinion, Mr. Britto does not know how to draw and much less how to paint.

His biographer(s) claim that he was born a poor lad in Brasil who was able to go to Europe (1983) to «study» art and was greatly influenced by the works of Matisse and Picasso. And suddenly (1988) he pops up in Miami…like hundreds of thousands of others…he got the «commission» to decorate a bottle of Absolute Vodka and the rest is history. He became the most «successful» artist (read as merchandiser) in Miami. And soon he opened his gallery (store/shop) on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. There he sells everything from trinkets to «paintings».

This is directly from his Wikipedia page:

«…In addition to his sculpture and fine art work, his designs have been used by Disney, BMW, IBM, Apple Computers, Grand Marnier, Pepsi, and Royal Caribbean Cruises, and been featured on a variety of consumer goods, such as Barbie dolls and pet collars.[4][3][5] According to a 2023 documentary about him, Britto is «the most collected and licensed artist in history.»[4] Some of his public art installations are at Hyde Park, London, the O2 Arena in Berlin, and the John F. Kennedy Airport.[5] He also designed a Miami water park.

This proves that he is no artist. He is an artisan who maybe sketches a few little hearts, faces of children and other little doodles and his staff «creates» the merchandise. Now, being «the most collected and licensed artist in art history» is total bull-shit. Do they mean to push this rubbish down our throat and tell us that he is more collected than Picasso, Dalí, or the queen of merchandising herself, Frida Kahlo? And I have seen his public installations in Miami and New York and I guarantee you they are nothing to get hung about.

He is also a big fan of Brasil’s Jair Bolsonaro and in 2020 he gifted him his portrait. Imagine that, a portrait made by Britto…

I am not going to waste my time putting here some of his artwork because frankly I do not consider him an artist nor his work art. Sorry. But if you are a fan, or are curious, you can look him up. But be careful, do not believe what they write about him as he is also part of his creation and he has specialists to promote him and his work.

CHEERS