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Fernando Botero
Nato a Medellin (Colombia)
Periodo 1932 alive
Biography
 Fernando
Botero was born on April 19, 1932 in Medellín, city in
the Colombian Andes. When he was twelve, his uncle, an aficionado
of bullfighting, enrolled him in a school for toreros which
he attended for two years. The preferred themes of his first
drawings were inspired by the world of bullfighting. Indeed,
his first known work is a water-colour depicting a bullfighter.
In 1948, he exhibited for the first time in his native city
and began to work with “El Colombiano,” the main newspaper
of Medellín, drawing the illustrations for their Sunday
supplements. He then moved to Bogotá where he met several
members of the Colombian cultural avant-garde including writer
Jorge Zalamea, great friend of Garcia Lorca. In these years
he was deeply influenced by the work of artists of the Mexican
mural-painting school such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Sigueiros
and José Clemente Orozco and painted large water-colours
such as Woman Crying (1949) which particularly reveal the influence
of Orozco. With the painting On the Coast (1952), he won the
second prize at the IX Exhibition of Colombian Artists, organised
at the National Library of Bogotá: with the 7,000 pesos
in prize money, he departed for Europe. First leg, Spain. In
Madrid, he enrolled at the Accademia San Fernando where he had
the opportunity to work in close contact with the masterpieces
on show at the Prado. His principal cultural referrals in this
period were Goya, Vélasquez, Titian and Tintoretto. He
rounded off his finances by painting copies of famous works
for tourists. After a year’s stay in Madrid, he departed
for Paris and moved into a small apartment on the Place des
Vosges. Deeply disillusioned by the French avant-garde, Botero
spent all his time at the Louvre, studying the old Masters.
1953-1954
In Italy, he enrolled at the Accademia di San Marco of Florence.
He made copies mostly of Giotto and Andrea del Castagno. He
studied the fresco painting technique during the day, while
at night he worked on oil paintings in his studio in via Panicale
which had formerly belonged to Giovanni Fattori. His passion
for the Italian Renaissance was further stimulated by the lessons
of Roberto Longhi. He travelled extensively throughout the Tuscan
countryside, visiting Arezzo to see the works of Piero della
Francesca and then Siena. He also visited the other art centres
of the peninsula including Venice and Ravenna.
1955-1956
Returning to Bogotá in March with the works of his Italian
stay, he exhibited them two months later at the National Library.
The exhibition met with bitter reactions from critics (then
primarily sensitive to the artistic trends dominating the Parisian
gallery circuit) who attacked him harshly. In December 1955
he got married. At the beginning of 1956, the couple was in
Mexico City where their first son, Fernando, was born. It was
with the works of this period that Botero discovered for the
first time the possibility of expanding and dilating the volume
of forms in his personal way.
1957
He held his first personal exhibition in the United States,
in Washington, D.C. He visited New York museums and discovered
abstract expressionism. In May, he returned to Bogotá
and received second prize at the X Colombian Exhibition.
1958
His daughter, Lina, was born. At the age of twenty-six, Botero
was appointed professor of painting at the Art Academy of Bogotá
(activity that he maintained until 1960) and began to win affirmation
as one of his country’s most promising artists. He made
several illustrations for La Siesta del Martes by Garcia Márquez
which were published in “El Tiempo,” the most important
Colombian daily newspaper. He won first prize at the XI Colombian
Exhibition with his work entitled, Bedroom of the Newlyweds
(Tribute to Mantegna), a free interpretation of the famous frescos
in the Palazzo Ducale of Mantua. His personal show organised
in October of the same year was a fine success: almost all of
his works were sold on the same day of inauguration.
1959
He presented the Apotheosis of Ramón Hoyos at the Colombian
Exhibition. In this period his admiration of Velásquez
was very strong: indeed, Botero painted more than ten versions
of the “Niño de Vallecas,” where a technique
characterised by incisive and mono-chromatic brushstrokes shows
the influence of abstract expressionism. He won a Guggenheim
prize and participated, along with Enrique Grau, Alejandro Obregon
and Eduardo Ramirez Villamizare, in the V Biennial Exhibition
of San Paulo in representation of his country.
1960-1962
In Bogotá in 1960, his second son, Juan Carlos, was born.
Botero was nominated to represent Colombia at the II Biennial
Exhibition of Mexico, a decision which provoked violent opposition
to which the artist and many of his friends energetically protested.
For the third time, he abandoned his country and, with little
money, moved to a loft in New York’s Greenwich Village.
The Gres Gallery which, until that time had helped and supported
him, closed. Botero divorced. In 1961, the Museum of Modern
Art of New York, by initiative of curator Dorothy C. Miller,
purchased his Mona Lisa at the Age of Twelve, but his first
New York show, held at The Contemporaries Gallery, was harshly
criticised.
1963-1966
He moved to the East Side. In 1964, he married Cecilia Zambrano
and a few months later won second prize at the 1 Intercol Exhibition
for young artists at the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá.
He built a house on Long Island and rented a new studio on 14th
Street in New York. Botero’s plastic style began to emerge
in many works of this period, characterised by soft, delicate
colours. Keen on Ruebens’ work, he painted many works inspired
by this great Flemish master. In January, 1966, he held his
first European important personal show in Baden-Baden, Germany.
The show organised the same year at the Milwaukee Art Center
was also a success and he received a very positive write-up
in “Time Magazine.”
1967-1970
Botero spent this period between Colombia, New York and Europe.
He visited Italy and Germany where he was fascinated by the
art of Dürer. Thus the “Dureroboteros” were born,
a series of large charcoal drawings, paraphrasing the famous
paintings by the great German artist. At the same time, he was
attracted by Manet and Bonnard and created works in which he
personally interpreted the stylistic characteristics of these
protagonists of modern art. In March of 1969, he exhibited at
the Center for Inter-American Relations of New York. In September,
his first personal Paris show was hosted at the Galerie Claude
Bernard. In 1970, his third son, Pedro, was born in New York.
In March, an important itinerant exhibition opened in five museums
of Germany, containing more than eighty works.
1971-1975
He rented an apartment on the Boulevard du Palais on the Ile
de la Cité, dividing his time between Paris, Bogotá
and his new New York studio on 5th Avenue. In February of 1972,
he held his first exhibition at New York’s Marlborough
Gallery. He bought a house in Cajica, north of Bogotá,
where henceforth he spent a month every year. In 1972, after
thirteen years, he left New York and moved to Paris. He did
his first sculptures. 1972 is the year of his first anthological
show in Bogotá, with works done between 1948 and 1972.
His son Pedro, four years old, died in an automobile accident
in Spain in which Botero, too, was injured. Following this tragedy,
many of his works were dedicated to the memory and image of
his son. In 1975, he separated from Cecilia Zambrano.
1976-1978
Following the important retrospective show at the Museo de Arte
Contemporáneo of Caracas, he was decorated with the order
of “Andrés Bello” by the president of Venezuela.
He again exhibited at the Galerie Bernard of Paris, but in these
years Botero devoted himself almost exclusively to sculpture,
producing twenty-five works on diverse themes: large torsos,
animals and gigantic objects. In 1977, he received the Boyacá
Cross from the government of Antioquia for services rendered
to Colombia. In the same year, the hall devoted to his son Pedro
opened at the Museo de Antioquia where the sixteen works donated
by the artist to the institute were exhibited. In October, his
sculptures were presented in Paris for the first time. The following
year, he returned to painting and transferred his Paris studio
to rue du Dragon, near the old Académie Julian.With his
wife, Sophia Vari, he moved to Pietrasanta to live there for
some months every year.
1979-1983
Important itinerant retrospective shows were devoted to him
in museums of Belgium, Norway and Sweden; in the United States,
his first American anthological show opened at the Hirshhorn
Museum of Washington, D.C. In 1981, exhaustive exhibitions also
opened in Japan, in Tokyo and Osaka. In 1983, the Metropolitan
Museum purchased Dance in Colombia and Botero illustrated Crónica
de una muerte anunciada by Garcia Márquez for the first
issue of “Vanity Fair.” The same year, he moved to
Tuscany, Pietrasanta, famous for its marble quarries, where
he works several months every year.
1984-1986
He donated several sculptures to the Museum of Antioquia in
Medellín, which devoted him a special room, and eighteen
paintings to the National Museum of Bogotá. In this period,
he devoted himself almost exclusively to the theme of bullfighting.
In April 1985, twenty-five paintings illustrating the different
phases of the bullfight were presented for the first time at
New York’s Marlborough Gallery. In January, 1986, he exhibited
in Caracas, Bremen and Frankfurt.
1987-1990
The important retrospective show organised at the Centro de
Arte Reina Sofia of Madrid was followed by an itinerant exhibition
entitled, Corrida, first presented at the Castello Sforzesco
of Milan and then in Naples, Palermo, Coro (Venezuela) and Caracas.
In 1990, an extensive anthological exhibition was organised
at the Fondation Gianadda in Martigny, while his most recent
sculptures were presented at the Marlborough Gallery of New
York.
1991-1998
He exhibited at the Brusberg Galerie of Berlin, Forte di Belvedere
of Florence, Marlborough Gallery of Tokyo and the Kunsthaus
of Vienna. The Palazzo delle Esposizioni of Rome devoted him
a large retrospective exhibition including works from 1949 until
his most recent works. In 1992, he exhibited his enormous sculptures
on the Champs-Elysées of Paris and his Corrida series
at the Grand Palais. The following year, an itinerant show was
held in Avignon and then at the Pushkin Museum of Moscow and
the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg. In 1994, a large exhibition
of his monumental sculptures was hosted in public venues of
major European cities. During the same year, exhibitions of
monumental sculptures were organised in Chicago and Madrid and
an anthological exhibition was held in Buenos Aires. The following
year, he exhibited a cycle of pastels at the Didier Imbert Gallery
of Paris and in 1996, a show organised by the Marlborough Gallery
of New York presented his most recent oil paintings. Between
1997 and 1998, important exhibitions were held at the National
Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile and at the Museum of
Modern Art of Lugano, in addition to shows at the Il Gabbiano
Gallery in Rome, Thomas Gallery in Munich and the Mario Sequeira
Gallery in Lisbon. Anthological exhibitions were held in San
Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo e Monterrey.
1999
Botero exhibits his monumental sculptures in Piazza della Signoria
and Piazzale degli Uffizi, paintings and small sculptures in
the Sala d’Arme of Palazzo Vecchio.
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