Fernando Botero memorable painter and sculptor

Round and voluptuous shapes marked a milestone in history, evidencing with his moldings and lines the immensity of the universe from his majesty.

Animals, people, fruits and things came to life in an environment seen with the sagacious eye of an innate creative, who gave a vibrant, deep and surprising touch to his masterful work.

He carried the name of Colombia high, exalting his stylistic seal in different scenarios with amazing, complex and varied techniques.

His paintings, canvases, sketches and impetuous sculptures reached large streets, museums and representative places to illuminate and marvel at his presence around the world.

Cartagena, Medellin, Bogota, Paris, New York, Madrid, China, Rome, Pietrasanta, Dubai and many others were adorned with the flashes of his sculpted and brushed light.

He shone among the greatest, and left his legacy to the country and humanity, transcending the borders of his art with an emotional, inspiring, unique and universal tendency.

 

– “Art is always doing the same thing, but in a different way.”

Fernando Botero, painter and sculptor forever.

 

The artist emerged

He was born in Medellin, Colombia in 1932. Son of David Botero and Flora Angulo.

Of Paisa birth and heart, in 1944 he left the bullfighting school he attended at the request of an uncle.

The reason, a problem he had with the bulls and discovering his true vocation as a painter, sculptor and draftsman.

His first work at that time was a watercolor of a bullfighter. Then, after rising in his practice, Botero gave his first exhibition in 1948.

Later, he produced illustrations for the newspaper El Colombiano, and then moved to Bogota in 1951 where he held his first two individual exhibitions.

 

Image: Monalisa – Botero version / Painting by: Fernando Botero. Bogota’s Botero Museum, Colombia.

 

Formative influences

After being in Bogota, he presented his oil painting “Frente al mar” (Oceanfront), which won second place at the IX National Artists’ Hall.

With the money received from the prize he traveled to study at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Art in Spain.

To support him in the European country he made drawings and paintings outside the Prado Museum.

Then in 1953 he moved to Florence, Italy and enrolled at the Academy of Saint Mark, where he learned from great exponents of art and his legacy in the Renaissance.

In 1956 he married Gloria Zea and moved to Mexico City, where still lifes, modern language and color gave him new perspectives that led him to exhibit in New York.

In 1958, he was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts of the National University of Colombia.

In addition to this, after his work Still Life with Mandolin he won first place in the Colombian Artists Hall.

Influences of avant-garde movements, period and three-dimensional art marked part of what would be the impressive evolution of his work.

 

Image: Pedrito on a Horse / Painting by: Fernando Botero. Antioquia Museum, Medellin, Colombia.

 

Love and contrasts

During his marriage to Gloria Zea he had three children, Fernando, Lina and Juan Carlos.

In 1960 he separated and was immersed in his art, then in 1964 he married Cecilia Zambrano and had his son Pedro with her in 1970.

Unfortunately, the boy died at 4 years of age in a traffic accident and after the difficult loss of him, he was separated again.

From there, the work Pedrito on a Horse emerged, a profound evocation of his art.

Then in 1978 he married again to Sophia Vari.

 

Image: The Cat / Sculpture by: Fernando Botero – Rambla del Raval, Barcelona, Spain / Courtesy: Press.

 

Fame or promotion

It increased in 1962 after exhibiting at the Milwaukee Art Center in the United States. From there, he began to exhibit in important places in Europe, the United States and Colombia.

Later in 1983 he moved to Pietrasanta, Italy and began a series of exhibitions around the world.

In that boom, he became one of the most sought-after living painters and sculptors on the planet.

After his death on September 15th, 2023 in Monaco, his art prevails and remains marked in history among the great artistic exponents of humanity.

 

Image: Roman Soldier / Sculpture by: Fernando Botero – Botero Plaza, Medellin, Colombia / Courtesy: Press.

 

Donations

*1976, Antioquia Museum, seven oil paintings, one pastel and two watercolors.

*1980, Antioquia Museum, 6 oil paintings.

*1984, Antioquia Museum, 16 sculptures and 18 paintings to the Colombia’s National Library in Bogota.

*1992, Santiago de Chile, sculpture of a horse, located in the Forest Park in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

*1998, Colombia’s Republic Bank, collection 203 works.

* 1998, Bogota’s Botero Museum, 123 works by him and 87 by international artists.

* 2000, Antioquia Museum, 114 paintings by him (oils, watercolors and drawings), 23 sculptures that today make up Botero Plaza and 21 works by international artists from his personal collection.

*2004, Colombia’s National Museum, works from the series Colombia’s Pain, made up of 23 oil paintings and 27 drawings.

*2007, University of California, Berkeley, 47 works from the Abu Ghraib series.

*2012, Antioquia Museum, The Viacrucis (*The way of the cross) series.

 

Article by:

Jackeline Gonzalez L.

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