Fernando Botero, Colombian painter and sculptor, was born in Medellín in 1932 His early production was influenced by the work of JCOrozco, DRivera and DA…
Siqueiros
In the early 1950s he traveled to France, Spain and Italy where he deepened his studies: he attended the Academia de San Fernando in Spain and he studied fresco technique at the Accademia di San Marco in Florence In 1956, when he went to Mexico, Botero began to dilate the volume of forms that he represented in a personal way From 1960 he lived in New York and later, in 1973, in Paris In the early 1960s his work was influenced by abstract expressionism, but in the following years the artist defined his own style, characterized by the use of rounded forms that render the characters caricatures The color remains muted, generally spread in flat, uniform backgrounds without outlines, and shading is totally absent Since the 1970s he also devoted himself to sculpture, repurposing his style in the third dimension
His works were exhibited in the 1990s in solo shows in Florence, Forte Belvedere (1991); in Paris, Champs-Élysées (1992-93); in Washington, Art museum of the Americas (1996); in Santiago, Chile, National Museum of Fine Arts (1997); in Lugano, Museum of Modern Art (1997); and in Florence, Piazza della Signoria, Piazzale degli Uffizi and Sala d’Arme in Palazzo Vecchio (1999)
In 2000, a museum dedicated to the artist was inaugurated in Bogotá and in Medellín the cultural project known as Ciudad Botero, which also includes the renovation of the Museo de Antioquia In 2012, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of his birth, the exhibition Fernando Botero: draughtsman and sculptor was held in Pietrasanta, where eighty works from the artist’s private collection were exhibited, while at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao the artist was celebrated with the anthological Fernando Botero Celebración
He died in Principality of Monaco in 2023
In the early 1950s he traveled to France, Spain and Italy where he deepened his studies: he attended the Academia de San Fernando in Spain and he studied fresco technique at the Accademia di San Marco in Florence In 1956, when he went to Mexico, Botero began to dilate the volume of forms that he represented in a personal way From 1960 he lived in New York and later, in 1973, in Paris In the early 1960s his work was influenced by abstract expressionism, but in the following years the artist defined his own style, characterized by the use of rounded forms that render the characters caricatures The color remains muted, generally spread in flat, uniform backgrounds without outlines, and shading is totally absent Since the 1970s he also devoted himself to sculpture, repurposing his style in the third dimension
His works were exhibited in the 1990s in solo shows in Florence, Forte Belvedere (1991); in Paris, Champs-Élysées (1992-93); in Washington, Art museum of the Americas (1996); in Santiago, Chile, National Museum of Fine Arts (1997); in Lugano, Museum of Modern Art (1997); and in Florence, Piazza della Signoria, Piazzale degli Uffizi and Sala d’Arme in Palazzo Vecchio (1999)
In 2000, a museum dedicated to the artist was inaugurated in Bogotá and in Medellín the cultural project known as Ciudad Botero, which also includes the renovation of the Museo de Antioquia In 2012, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of his birth, the exhibition Fernando Botero: draughtsman and sculptor was held in Pietrasanta, where eighty works from the artist’s private collection were exhibited, while at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao the artist was celebrated with the anthological Fernando Botero Celebración
He died in Principality of Monaco in 2023
