Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero Angulo ODB (Medellín, April 19, 1932) is a Colombian painter, sculptor and draftsman, residing in Monaco.
Early Years
Fernando Botero was born on April 19, 1932 in Medellín, in the middle of a family made up of his father David Botero, his mother Flora Angulo and his four-year-older brother, Juan David. Four years after his birth, in 1936 his younger brother, Rodrigo, was born. The same year, his father passed away.
From 1938 he studied primary school at the Ateneo Antioqueño and high school at the Bolivarian University. Good afternoon
In 1944 he attended the bullfighting school in the Plaza de La Macarena in Medellín, with the banderillero 'Aranguito', at the request of an uncle, who did not imagine that his true vocation was painting. He had a mishap with the bulls, which made him leave them. It is noteworthy that in that period he made his first work, a watercolor of a bullfighter . Once his family understood his vocation, Botero held his first exhibition in Medellín in 1948.
He made illustrations for a local newspaper (El Colombiano), with which he financed his studies, he wrote an article about Picasso, which led to his expulsion from the Bolivarian College, the campus where he studied, since his drawings were considered as obscene, and should have completed his studies at the Lyceum of the University of Antioquia. He traveled between his famous sculpture studios in Pietra Santa, Italy and painting studios in Paris (France), New York (United States of America) and Monte Carlo (Principality of Monaco); likewise, he dedicated time to drawing some days of the year in Zihuatanejo, Mexico and Rionegro, in Colombia.
Bogota City
Once he finished his secondary studies in 1950, he moved to Bogotá in 1951, where he had direct contact with some of the most important Colombian intellectuals of the time. That same year, Botero held his first two individual exhibitions and at the Leo Matiz gallery he gave a very good advance to his career. Later, he settled in Tolú, on the Colombian Caribbean Coast, where he dedicated himself to painting in the pension of Isolina García, and paid for his stay with a mural. Upon his return to Bogotá, with the oil painting Front the sea won second place in the IX national artist salon.
Training in Europe
In 1952, with the money received from the prize and with the sale of some of his works, Botero arrived in Europe on the Italian ship "Uso dimare", which left from the port of Buenaventura on the Colombian Pacific. He arrived in Spain, first in Barcelona and then settled in Madrid, where he enrolled in the San Fernando Royal Academy of Art and to guarantee his support, he made drawings and paintings outside the Prado Museum.
In 1953, he spent the summer in Paris with the filmmaker Ricardo Iragarri, and later moved with him to Florence, enrolling in the Academy of San Marco, where he was strongly influenced by Italian Renaissance art, studying especially the work of Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello and Titian, among others. His encounter with the book The Italian Renaissance Painters by Bernard Berenson and with the work of Paolo Uccello (especially with the diptych of the Battle of San Romano in the Uffizi Gallery) would have to be decisive for his experimentation with volume in painting, especially due to the notion of "tactile values" and three-dimensionality that Berenson attributed to Ucello and Giotto in his works.
Return to Colombia and trip to Mexico
After his return from Italy in 1955, the artist decided to hold an exhibition in Bogotá of the works made in Europe, of which he received much criticism, since at that time the country was influenced by the French avant-garde, which led him to a cold reception.
After this difficult experience, Botero married Gloria Zea, with whom he left for Mexico City in 1956. New influences became visible in his work, especially that of the Colombian painter Alejandro Obregón with his modern language and that of the Mexican Rufino Tamayo with his overflowing color. On the other hand, the work of Mexican muralism, which had kept him awake so much in his youth, now seemed to disappoint him, for which he decided to study his new influences and focus for a time on experimenting with volume based on still lifes. Based on this inquiry, Botero discovered his own language that was first evident in objects from his still lifes and that he later began to create in human characters that interacted with his objects. A year later, he exhibited for the first time in New York: success began to follow him. Fernando Botero managed to intensify his personal battles, his combats canvas to canvas, art against time and beauty against death.
Botero returned to Bogotá and in 1958 he was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts of the National University of Colombia. This presented a large-format work to the XI Salón de Artistas Colombianos. Conceived with the awareness of being a masterpiece, Botero obtained with La Camara degli sposi (Homage to Mantegna) the first prize in the salon, consolidating himself as the most important painter this year in Colombia. That same year he exhibited in several galleries in the United States. In one of these successful exhibitions in the same year, La Camara degli sposi was sold to a businessman in Chicago, and the work has since disappeared. Numerous critics and Latin American art historians have pointed it out as one of the most important works of Colombian art for being a point of consolidation of Botero's pictorial language, and for opening the doors to the new figuration that other young painters would later experience. The work had caused a great controversy when it was initially discarded from the salon, then reinstated and finally awarded. It aroused tremendous doubt in the public and in the juries who initially conceived the work as a caricature of The Chamber of the Bridegrooms by the Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna. Marta Traba had to mediate to explain that the artists made artistic recreations in which they alluded to or paid homage to other works that preceded them, and that the "ugly" used by Botero was a painting of great quality and visual power.
By marrying Gloria Zea, director of the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá, Botero had three children: Fernando, Lina and Juan Carlos. The latter was born the same year that he decided to separate from his first wife.
Botero and the New York avant-garde
In 1960, Botero returned to New York to settle. Once there, he rented a small apartment where he lived modestly, since he had just separated from his wife; In addition, his works were not very successful, as the New York tastes of the time changed rapidly and then abstraction prevailed.
The influence of abstract expressionism was already evident from the works of 1958, the result of Botero's first trips to New York, where he had been able to see the enormous formats of Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and de Kooning. This meeting marked the production of Botero, who, however, kept his figurative language, but he experimented with aggressive brushwork, the use of strong tones and the use of large formats. While his study of volume seemed to take a back seat due to his concern for brushstrokes and color, Botero created interesting series (one of which was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1962) and that of The children of Vallecas in homage to Diego Velázquez.
By 1962, his expressionist language reached a turning point, because he was about to take a course that would have definitively moved him away from his preoccupation with volume. Botero restarted his experimentation, this time taking more interest in the works of pop artists that were being exhibited in New York, as a result of which his work resumed the thematic concerns of his figurative characters, leaving aside the formal aspect of the brushstroke, and using flat colors in your painting. In some cases he even included collages in his 1963 paintings. Having found financial serenity from him, Botero remarried.
In 1963 he moved his residence to the East Side and rented a new studio in New York. It is there where his plastic style emerged in many of his works from this period, with subdued and delicate colors. His passion for Rubens would be seen in his works.
In early 2008, Fernando Botero received an Honoris Causa Doctorate from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, in Monterrey, Mexico. Likewise, he presented for the first time in this city his collection of paintings on & # 34; Abu Ghraib & # 34; and his huge bronze sculpture titled "Horse".
Fame
In 1962 his first exhibition was organized in the USA. A new show at the Milwaukee Art Center received widely positive reviews. This is how Botero began a period of shows and exhibitions between Europe, the United States and Colombia. In 1969 he exhibited in Paris; It was from that moment that Botero began a pilgrimage around the world in search of inspiration; he was constantly moving from Bogota to New York and to Europe.
In 1970, their son Pedro Botero, called Pedrito, was born in New York. At the same time, his worldwide fame grew more and more and made him the most valued living sculptor on the planet at that time. In 1974, when his son was barely four years old, Botero had a traffic accident in Spain, which cost Pedrito his life.
The death of his son would leave traces in Botero's work which, from that moment on, began to have profound changes, considered by critics as traces of the loss of his son. In addition, his marriage to Cecilia Zambrano did not overcome the loss of Pedrito and Botero separated for the second time.
A year earlier, he had settled in Paris and started working on sculpture. In 1976, Botero made a donation of sixteen of his works to the Museo de Antioquia, which dedicated a permanent room for his works, the Pedrito Botero room.
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Since 1979, when the first Botero retrospective was presented at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, his exhibitions throughout the world have not stopped. In 1983 he moved to the aforementioned Pietrasanta, in Tuscany (Italy), a small town famous for his foundries, which for Botero meant the continuity of his sculptural work. The following year, Botero made a new donation to the Museum of Antioquia. This time it was a series of sculptures that also found a place in a new permanent room dedicated to Botero in the museum.
Starting in 1983, Botero began a series of exhibitions throughout the world that still continues today. This is how his works are exhibited and of course known in cities such as Dubai, London, Rome, San Francisco, Chicago, Basel, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, San Juan de Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Milan, and Naples., Paris, Monte Carlo, Barcelona -El Prat Airport-, Moscow, Mexico City, Monterrey or Caracas. As a whole, his work has passed through most European and American countries. Botero is one of the few artists who have had the luxury of exhibiting their pieces in several of the most famous avenues and squares in the world, such as the Champs Elysees in Paris, the Grand Avenue in New York, the Rambla del Raval in Barcelona, the Plaza del Comercio in Lisbon, the Plaza de la Señoría in Florence, in front of the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City and even in the Pyramids of Egypt.
He also has urban sculpture in cities in Spain, such as in Oviedo with his work La Maternidad from 1996, and in Madrid. In 2012 a series of international tributes were held on the occasion of the anniversary of his eightieth birth (80). The celebrations included exhibitions of his works in museums in Mexico City, São Paulo in Brazil, Pietra Santa and Asís in Italy, Santiago de Chile, Bogotá and Medellín in Colombia, Bilbao in Spain, Bielefeld in Germany, among others. Likewise, the Presidency of Colombia announced a decree in which it catalogs the 479 works by Botero that are found on Colombian soil as of "national cultural interest", which implies protection, conservation and promotion measures. by the Colombian State. In 2013, a collection full of sensuality and eroticism was known called the Boterosutra collection and in 2015, the most recent artistic creation, which in contrast to the previous one was called the "holy" collection.
From November 2015 to April 2016, one of the most important anthological exhibitions on the artist was held in the People's Republic of China, specifically in the cities of Beijing at the National Museum of China and in Shanghai at the China Art Museum. Likewise, and in parallel, an exhibition of works by the artist, including the Boterosutra series, was held at the Musée Würth in Erstein, France, from September 25, 2015 to May 15, 2016.
Style and techniques
Annex: Works by Fernando Botero
The artistic creations of his authorship are printed with a sui generis and irreverent interpretation of the figurative style, called by some as "boterismo", which imbues the iconographic works with an unmistakable identity, recognizable not only by specialized critics, but also by also by the general public, including children and adults alike, becoming one of the main manifestations of contemporary art globally; The original interpretation that the artist gives to a diverse spectrum of themes is characterized from the plastic by an exalted volumetry that impregnates the creations with a three-dimensional character, as well as strength, exuberance and sensuality, together with a particular anatomical conception, an aesthetic which chronologically could be framed in the forties in the West applied to plots that can be current or past, local but with a universal vocation (Greek and Roman mythology; love, customs, daily life, nature, landscapes, death, violence, women, sex, religion and politics in Latin America and Western Europe, as well as still lifes, reinterpretation of classic works, portraits and self-portraits, among others), represented with a lively and masterful use (from a technical point of view) of color, accompanied by fine and subtle details of scathing criticism and irony in each work. He is currently considered the most valued living Latin American artist in the world.
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His work is part of an original interpretation of the figurative style. Since its inception, Botero has resorted to traditional scenes, initially with a loose brushstroke of dark colors (with occasional strong contrasts) close to expressionism, and since the late 1960s, he has resorted to closed brushstrokes, with more defined figures and contours.
On the edge of this highway of contemporary art, Botero has set up an art school for five decades with a graduate: himself.
In his recent work, Botero has resorted thematically to the Colombian and world political situation. For example, the series on "Abu Ghraib" It is made up of 78 paintings that represent the horrors of torture and war, related to the United States invasion of Iraq and the events of the Abu Ghraib Prison, based on the statements of the people tortured there.
In pictorial terms, the masterful handling of oil, pastel and watercolor stands out, as well as drawing in charcoal, pencil, bistre and sanguine on canvas and paper, and in sculpture, the sculpting of bronze in various patinas and mainly in Carrara marble.
His works have been donated to cities, public entities in various countries and sold in important auction houses reaching record prices for living contemporary plastic artists.
Donations from Botero
- In 1976, Botero's first donation to the Antioquia Museum, seven oils, a cake and two watercolors.
- In the early 1980s, he donated 6 oils to the Antioquia Museum.
- In 1984, he donated 16 sculptures and 18 paintings to the National Library of Colombia in Bogotá.
- In 1992 he donated to Santiago de Chile the sculpture of a horse, which was located in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art in the Forest Park.
- In 1998 Botero donated the Banco de la República de Colombia, an important collection, consisting of 203 works, 123 works by its authorship and 87 by international artists to the Botero Museum in Bogotá.
- In 2000, the Antioquia Museum received a donation from the teacher of 114 paintings (oils, watercolors and drawings) of the master, 23 sculptures that today make up the Plaza Botero and 21 works of international artists from his personal collection.
- In 2004, he made a new donation. On this occasion the National Museum of Colombia, consisting of the works of the series on violence, called The Pain of Colombiacomposed of 23 oils and 27 drawings.
- In 2007, he donated 47 works from the Abu Ghraib series to the University of California, Berkeley, which is exhibited at its headquarters.
- In 2012, donates the series The Viacrucis to the Museum of Antioquia.
Personal life
In 1954, Botero married Gloria Zea (founder of the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá and director of the Colombian Institute of Culture, Colcultura) and they had three children: Fernando (who was born in 1956 while they lived in Mexico City and was Minister of Defense during the government of Ernesto Samper, who was accused of enrichment in the 8000 process), Lina (1958) and Juan Carlos Botero Zea (1960). The Botero Zea divorced in 1960.
In 1964, Botero married Cecilia Zambrano, with whom he had a son, Pedro (1970), who tragically died in 1974 in a traffic accident in Spain while the family was on vacation. Botero and Zambrano separated in 1975.
In 1978, Botero married Greek artist Sophia Vari. They live in Paris and have residences in Pietrasanta (Italy), New York, Montecarlo and Rionegro (Colombia).
Public and permanent exhibitions around the world
- Germany: Kunsthalle de Núremberg, Wallraf-Richartz Museum of Cologne, Staatsgalerie and Pinacoteca de Múnich, Long term sculpture in Bamberg, Bavaria.
- Argentina: Exhibition BusIn the public place of Thays Park. Buenos Aires; painting widowers at MALBA Museum. Recumbent Woman, in Museo Estación Sur de Mar del Plata
- Armenia: Cafesjian Museum, Yerevan.
- Austria: Moderne Kunst of Vienna.
- Belgium: BAM (Musée des Beaux-Arts Mons), exhibition "Fernando Botero - Au-delà des formses", 09-10-2021 until 30-01-2022.
- Chile: National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago;
- Colombia: Museum of Antioquia and Plaza Botero (the largest permanent collection in the world of works of the artist, donated by the same Botero), of Medellín; Museo Nacional de Colombia, in Bogotá; Museo de Arte Moderno (MamBo) in Bogotá; Museo de Arte del Banco de la República (Museo Botero) in Bogotá; Parque San Pío in Bucaramanga; Plaza de Santo Domingo (Cartagena de Indias).
- South Korea: Ho-am Museum, Seoul;
- United Arab Emirates: Explanated in front of the Burj Khalifa of Dubai.
- Spain: Paseo de la Castellana, Plaza de Colón, Barajas Airport of Madrid, airport "El Prat" of Barcelona; as well as Son Sant Joan de Palma de Mallorca, in the center of the city of Oviedo; Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), and term of the Domus, in La Coruña
- United States of AmericaHirshhorn Museum and its sculpture garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington; Lowe Art, University of Miami, Coral Gables (Florida); Rochester University Museum (Míchigan); Metropolitan, New York; Milwaukee Art (Wisconsin); Modern Art, MOMA, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim and Time Warner Center;
- France: Erstein; Würth Museum.
- Israel: Museum of Israel, Jerusalem;
- Italy and Vatican City: Collection of Modern Religious Art of the Vatican Museums; entry and deadlines of Pietrasanta.
- Japan: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Hiroshima, Museo Yamanashi Prefectural, Museo Moderno de Tokushima, Museo Moderno de Saitama, Museo de Arte Miyagi.
Big bird. Singapore. - Kazakhstan: CAI, Almaty.
- Mexico: Explanation of heroes in Monterrey and Soumaya Museum, Mexico City
- Panama: Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower, Panama City.
- Portugal: Casa das Mudas Arts Center, in Calheta (Isla Madeira); Parque Amalia Rodrigues, in Lisbon.
- Principality of Liechtenstein: Museum of the Arts of Liechtenstein in Vaduz.
- Principality of Monaco: Adam and Eve, Monte Carlo Gardens.
- Puerto Rico: Ponce Art Museum and Puerto Rico Art Museum.
- United Kingdom of Great Britain: Broadgate Venus in Exchange square - Liverpool Street Station; London, Soho.
- Russia: Pushkin Museum in Moscow; the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
- Singapore: Boat Quay-Cavenagh Bridge; Resorts World Sentosa-Hotel Michael.
- Sweden: Västra Götaland.
- Switzerland: Lausanne Olympic Museum.
- Venezuela: Museum of Fine Arts and Contemporary Art of Caracas.
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