Fernando Botero Angulo - biography, facts from life, photographs, background information. Unusual places and monuments of Fernando Botero: short biography

Sculptures by Fernando Botero rus_lynx wrote in August 23rd, 2014

Original taken from rus_lynx in Sculptures by Fernando Botero

I became acquainted with the work of Fernando Botero half a year ago, finding myself in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami. The gaze did not just accidentally fall on the bronze sculptures, it was literally captured by them. Huge monumental figures were the main decoration of the lobby: majestic, calm, arousing admiration. Did they cause fear? Not at all. On the contrary, there was a feeling of tenderness and sympathy.
Judge for yourself:

I had never seen anything like this before and, overcome with passion, began searching for information about the sculptor.
Fernando Botero is a Colombian sculptor still alive today. He studied at art schools in Spain and Italy, one of his favorite artists was Velazquez (perhaps it was he who influenced the fact that his sculptures and paintings express restraint, encouraging us to reveal for ourselves what is hidden behind the outer shell).
Botero in the early stages creative path did not have a specific style and painted paintings in different styles. His search for himself reminds me of early Picasso, when he, painting with early childhood, tried different styles until he found his own, such a recognizable style that brought him world fame. So Botero, who came from a poor family, searched for his way and finally found his inimitable style in depicting people and objects as if swollen, inflated, static.

World fame came to Botero when, along with painting, he began to create sculptures “in the Botero style”: huge, bronze statues expressing a state of peace. Now his statues are worth millions of dollars and famous cities around the world are queuing up to purchase his sculptures to decorate city parks and squares.

I think it is precisely this “trademark” state of detachment and peace, along with grotesque amazing forms, that makes his work so popular. And that’s why it resonated in my soul – his figures seem to be in a state of meditation, which means peace and harmony. That is, they are in the very state that I strive for, listening to my inner feelings, doing yoga and searching for myself and my path. If you look at these statues, your breathing gradually becomes even and calm. And suddenly the meaning of life is revealed to you - it is in harmony. And harmony is in peace.

The lines of Omar Khayyam came to mind:

He who understands life is no longer in a hurry, 

Savoring every moment and watching,

 As a child sleeps, an old man prays, 

How it rains and how snowflakes melt. 

He sees beauty in the ordinary, 

In the tangled simplest solution, 

He knows how to make a dream come true 

He loves life and believes in Sunday 

He realized that happiness does not come from money, 

And their number will not save you from grief,

 But who lives with a tit in his hands, 

He definitely won’t find his firebird 

He who understood life understood the essence of things, 

That only death is more perfect than life, 

What to know, without being surprised, is worse, 

Why not know or be able to do something?

In this post I want to talk about a very peculiar and talented artist, o whom I learned relatively recently. This artist is quite unusual and his paintings and sculptural works can produce an unusual effect - some people find him vulgar and grotesque, others find him a man with overflowing laughter and jokes and often caustic satire. In a word, the artist is extraordinary and often people don’t even know how to define his art, so much so that he doesn’t fit into the usual framework. Both my wife and I really love his work and often our mood lifts simply when we look at one or another of his paintings or sculptures.
Fernando Botero was born in South America, in the city of Medeyin, Colombia, in the province of Antigua on April 19, 1932. His father was an itinerant merchant who often rode through the mountainous, rugged region of the province on a donkey, climbing into its most remote corners. When Fernando was only 2 years old, his father suddenly died of a heart attack, leaving little Fernando and his 2 brothers in the care of his mother. This sudden and tragic loss left Fernando in a state of loss, sadness and emptiness that he was never able to fill.
Today's Medeyin, a modern large metropolis, is significantly different from that small provincial town, in where Fernando Botero lived. In the early 1930s, in the small town of Medellin, the church and Catholicism played a strong role in the daily life and morality of the people of the city. Botero studied at a school in which the teachers were priests of the Jesuit Order. The strict, harsh discipline of the school did not give too much a lot of time for entertainment and little Fernando began to draw to brighten up his life and give an outlet for the creative impulse and fantasy that always seethed in him. While still a teenager, he fell in love with bullfighting, which was so popular in South America, for the rest of his life, and, of course , in Colombia. From the age of 13, Botero began to draw bullfights, bulls and all the bullfighters, matadors and picadors taking part in it. His talent and knowledge of art manifested itself very early in his work. When he was only 17 years old, he wrote an article in the local newspaper El Colombiano, which he called "Picasso and nonconformism in art", in which he wrote about surrealism and abstract painting.
In 1951, Botero moved to the capital, to the city of Bogota, and already at the age of 19 he had his first personal exhibition and sale of paintings in the Leo Matiz gallery. Each of his works was sold.
Oddly enough, Botero found it difficult to part with his works and he became the largest “collector” of his paintings and sculptures, which he did not sell despite the huge sums of money that collectors and museums offered him. Like many artists, Botero decided to go to Europe to study European schools of painting and their masters. He for a long time He studied at the Academy of Art in Madrid, Spain, where he began to create works in the style of Velazquez and Francisco Goya. He also studied in Florence, Italy, where he learned the techniques of painting frescoes of the Italian Renaissance masters. In 1956 he studied at the faculty fine arts at the University of Bogotá. He also traveled to South America and also traveled to Mexico, where he studied the works of Diego Rivera and Orozco. It was in Mexico that his work fell under strong influence large painted frescoes on the walls of buildings. The Botero style, which is today associated with his work, took shape around 1964. These were images of people, animals, trees, still lifes, character
inflated forms and almost invisible, like the varnished surface of paintings.
In 1969, Fernando Botero held a major exhibition of his work entitled Bloated Images, which was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This exhibition strengthened his reputation as an artist and he entered the international scene. His works are characterized by exaggerated, inflated forms and often appear as satirical and humorous works. Symbols of power and strength are often present in his paintings and paintings depicting presidents and soldiers as well as priests are often the target of Fernando Botero. His works often remind people of the work of the famous Colombian -Gabriel García Márquez But despite his love for his country, many of the themes of his paintings and sculptures run through European history. He creates works that remind us of the Middle Ages, Italian Baroque and colonial paintings of Latin America. He also creates works that parody and copying in exaggerated forms different periods art, including paintings by Bonnard and Jacques-Louis David. At different periods of his art, his paintings show the influence of Gauguin and Pablo Picasso, as well as the art of the Indian tribes of Central and South America, especially Olmec sculpture. But most often his paintings are compared with the works of Peter Paul Rubens, whose paintings Botero always admired. In the works of Rubens, Botero wrote, “we see a world of carnal exaggeration, excess, splendor of life, form and contentment, a world where the sacred and the secular, the blasphemous exist side by side.”
Botero once said: “In art, as long as we can create and think,
we are forced to distort nature. Art is always a distortion."

Fernando Botero in Bogota, Colombia.

Fernando Botero. The Weeping Woman (1949).

Fernando Botero.Matador.

Fernando Botero. Imitation of Velazquez (portrait of the Infanta).

Fernando Botero. Marie Antoinette.

Fernando Botero. Marie Antoinette in Medein, Colombia.

Fernando Botero. Imitation of Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa.

Fernando Botero. Imitation of Piero della Francesca. (Portrait of Count D'Urbino.)

Fernando Botero. Imitation of Piero della Francesca. (Portrait of Isabella D'Este.)

Colombian Fernando Botero does not hide his passion for fat people, Botero portrays exclusively fat people; everyone is fat - people, horses, dogs, even apples. Influential art critic Roberta Smith disparagingly called them “rubber blow-up dolls.”

“With forms and volumes, I try to influence people’s feelings and sensuality,” the artist justifies himself, “meaning by sensuality not only voluptuousness and eroticism

Obesity became for him a measure of beauty, an ideal, his creative credo. Botero's works, be they paintings, sculptures or graphics, are easily recognizable, and once you have seen them, you will never forget them.

Botero’s painting and sculpture are recognized in the world too seriously, as they say, “for a lot of money.” The author takes advantage of this by releasing a huge number of works, all the time returning to the same plots and themes. Because of this, the “growth of the master” is not visible in his paintings; if you do not know the years of creation of many of the works, then the paintings painted with a difference of 10-15 years look like works made in the same year.

Colombian artist, master of painting in the grotesque-traditionalist direction, close to “naive art.” On his colorful canvases, kitsch and folk color coexist with Italian Renaissance and colonial baroque.

Fernando Botero Self-Portrait with Flag

Fernando Botero was born in the city of Medellin (Colombia), known in the world for its drug cartel, in the family of a businessman. His family lost their fortune and his father died when future artist was still very young. He attended the school of the Jesuit Order.
His childhood dream was to become a bullfighter. In 1944 he was sent to a matador school for several months (recording these impressions in his first drawings dedicated to bullfighting).

F. Botero Fight 1988

F. Botero Four dwarf bullfighters 1988

F. Botero Torrero 1991
F.Botero Picador 2002

F. Botero Corrida 1991

F. Botero Pica 1997

However, at the age of 15, he surprised his entire family with the news that he intended to become an artist, which did not fit into the rules of his conservative family, where art could be a hobby, but not a profession. Arriving in Bogota (1951), he met local avant-garde artists who were inspired by Mexican revolutionary art.

Botero, as an illustrator, gradually achieved that his drawings on various topics were used to illustrate articles in the newspaper El Colombiano. But then he decided to leave for Europe in search of new knowledge.
Traveled to Spain (1952). This was his first trip outside his homeland. He reached Spain by ship. Already in Madrid I signed up for art school San Fernando, was shocked by the paintings of D. Velazquez and F. Goya.
In his work there are numerous reminiscences of Velazquez and Goya.

F. Botero Self-portrait in a Velazquez costume 1986 Beyeler Gallery, Zurich

After some time, he came to Florence, where he studied at the Academy of San Marco (1953-1954) with Professor Bernard Berenson. There he became acquainted with Italian Renaissance art.
Later, in 1952, he returned to his homeland and organized his first opening day at the Leo Mathis Gallery. But, in general, the young artist did not stand out much among hundreds of his talented compatriots. His paintings were so diverse that visitors initially thought it was an exhibition of several artists. The range of artists who influenced his early paintings ranged from Paul Gauguin to the Mexican painters Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. True, the young self-taught man from a town in the Andes had never seen the original works of these artists, as well as others. His acquaintance with painting was limited to reproductions from books.
Also in 1952, he took part in the National Art Salon competition, where he took second place with his work “By the Sea”. In 1956 he visited Mexico.

Developed my own characteristic style in the second half of the 1950s. Until 1955, his main subjects were ordinary men and horses; then he had not yet discovered either “fat women” or monumental sculptures, to which he owes his worldwide fame. They “came” as if by accident, when one day in Bogota, in his “Still Life with Mandolin,” the instrument suddenly acquired unprecedented dimensions. And from that moment on, Botero found his theme. I couldn’t find a mandolin, so I imagine the same one, but with a guitar and another still life.

F. Botero Guitar On a chair
F. Botero Still life with watermelon

Elements of the Italian and Spanish Renaissance-Baroque, as well as Latin American Baroque, coupled with iso-folklore and kitsch in the spirit of “naive art” and even features of primitivism, formed a bizarre fusion in Botero’s work.
Objects and figures appear in his paintings and graphics as emphatically lush, smugly swollen, in sleepy peace - this magical trance is reminiscent of the provincial-stagnant and at the same time “magical” atmosphere of the stories of H. L. Borges and the novels of G. G. Marquez .

F. Botero Lovers 1968

F. Botero Male model in the studio 1972
F.Botero Maiden 1974

CYCLE "STREET"

F. Botero Street 1965
F. Botero Street 1979

F. Botero Street 2000

In no other subject do Botero display volumetric forms as aggressively as in his nudes female images; no other motive art world does not remain in the memory as long as these overweight figures with exaggeratedly full hips and legs. They are the ones who cause the most strong feelings from the viewer: from rejection to admiration.

F. Botero Letter 1976

F.Botero Beach

F. Botero Seated woman 1976
F. Botero In the bedroom 1984

F. Botero Bather
F. Botero In the bathroom 1989

F. Botero At the window 1990
F. Botero Seated woman 1997

Despite the fact that Botero most often turns to genre portraiture, the theme of crime, military conflicts and bullying also appears in his work.
The gentle humor characteristic of his art is sometimes replaced by anti-clerical satire, for example, Dead Bishops (1965, Gallery contemporary art, Munich) or aimed at Latin American military dictatorships, such as Official Portrait of a Military Junta (1971, private collection, New York). I couldn’t find these paintings, but the reproductions presented below reflect the given theme.

F.Botero I'm Walking in the Hills 1977
F. Botero Cardinal 1998

FROM THE CYCLES "MILITARY DICTATORSHIP" AND "MAFIA"

F. Botero Untitled 1978

F.Botero Death of Pablo Escobar

In the late 90s, Botero painted a series of paintings addressing the ruthlessness and cruelty of warring drug gangs (remember that Colombia is a country where even the entrance to a haberdashery store is guarded by a powerful spotted handsome man with a gun).

FROM THE "MAFIA" SERIES

F. Botero Massacre of the Innocents 1999

F. Botero Massacre in Colombia 2000

F. Botero Hunter 1999
F. Botero Widow 1997

F. Botero Demonstration 2000
F. Botero Consolation 2000

Botero did not pass by either higher authority Columbia, addressing this topic three times. I am personally interested in the fate of these paintings and the opinion of those portrayed about the artist’s work.

F. Botero President 1987
F. Botero First Lady 2000

F. Botero President 1989
F. Botero First Lady 1989

Botero always responds to what is happening in the world. He recently created a series of paintings that tell about the abuse of the American military against prisoners in the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison. The Abu Ghraib series, according to Botero, continues the theme of cruelty and violence in the world. Below are some works from this series.

But let's return to the artist's biography!
In 1964, Botero married Gloria Sea, who later bore him three children. Later they moved to Mexico, where they experienced great financial difficulties. It is appropriate here to place the artist’s works dedicated to love and family.

F. Botero Love 1982

F. Botero Nap 1982

F. Botero Family 1989
F. Botero Couple 1995

F.Botero Family 1996
F. Botero Colombian family 1999

F. Botero Picnic 1999

F. Botero Love couple

This was followed by a divorce, and then the artist moved to New York, sometimes visiting Paris. The money quickly ran out, and his English skills left much to be desired. Then the artist remembered his “European” experience and began, as then, to rewrite great works, which he then sold to visitors to museums and galleries.
Some of his works are more free in their writing style, but in any case the plots go back to classical, well-known images, although they invariably acquire a parodic character. I specifically place the originals with Botero’s paintings so that you can feel the difference.

F. Botero Mona Lisa 1977
Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa 1503-05

F. Botero Mademoiselle Rivière Ingres 1979
Jean Dominique Ingres Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere 1805

F. Botero Imitation of Piero della Francesca 1988
Piero della Francesca Portrait of Federigo da Montefeltro second half of the 15th century

F. Botero Sunflowers 1977
Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers 1888

At the same time, Botero worked on his own works, seeking to be accepted into the Malbrough Gallery, which happened in 1970, where the artist appeared to the whole world. Soon Botero returned to Europe, and this time his arrival was triumphant. Since 1983 he lived in the Tuscan town of Pietrasanta.
This is what his themes and plots were like in the 80s.

F. Botero Ball in Colombia 1980

F. Botero Man drinking orange juice 1987

F.Botero English Ambassador 1987
F. Botero In the park

F. Botero Adam 1989
F. Botero Eva 1989

F. Botero Melancholia 1989
F. Botero Ballerina at the barre

Botero creates in different countries world: in his house in Paris he paints large canvases, in Tuscany (Italy) he spends the summer with his sons and grandchildren, creates his huge sculptures,
on Cote d'Azur Monte Carlo, creates his smallest works in watercolor and ink, in New York he writes more large paintings pastel and watercolors.
His conquest of Paris ended a fifteen-year struggle for success and turned Master Fernando Botero into one of the most important living artists in the world.
In 1992, Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, during the campaigns for the gentrification of Paris, chose Botero, not even a Frenchman, to compose an exclusive exhibition on the Champs-Elysees. No artist had ever received such an honor before.
Since then different cities the world invites Fernando Botero to give greater scope to their celebrations by displaying his works. This happened in Madrid, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Monte Carlo, Florence and many others. Other cities purchased his works for very high prices. large amounts, while others are standing in line.
On the other hand, how, if not caricatures, in best case scenario- friendly cartoons, you can call his portraits famous artists?

F. Botero Picasso. Paris. 1930th year. 1998
F. Botero Portrait of P. Picasso 1999

F. Botero Portrait of J. Ingres 1999
F. Botero Portrait of E. Delacroix 1998

F. Botero Portrait of G. Courbet 1998
F. Botero Portrait of G. Giacometti 1998

His works are rated as some of the most expensive in the world, such as the painting “Breakfast on the Grass.” This is a paraphrase of the famous painting of the same name by the founder of impressionism Edouard Manet, painted by Fernando Botero in 1969. Only if in Manet's case, dressed men were in the company of naked women, in Botero's the monumental lady is dressed, and the man is lying naked on the grass and smoking a cigarette. At Sotheby's the painting was sold for one million US dollars.

F. Botero Breakfast on the grass 1969

At the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. became the most famous of the Latin American artists of his generation. Now creative heritage Botero is huge - it has almost 3 thousand paintings and more than 200 sculptural works, as well as countless drawings and watercolors.
In Russia there is his work “Still Life with Watermelon” (1976-1977), donated by the author state museum"Hermitage" and exhibited in the Hall of Art of Europe and America of the 20th century.
The artist's generosity in Colombia is legendary. For example, a museum fine arts Bogota, he donated a collection of paintings valued at $60 million. As a gift hometown The artist gave Medellin 18 sculptures shown at exhibitions in Madrid, Paris, New York, Chicago, and almost a hundred paintings that formed the basis of the exhibition at the Place des Arts. In total, the artist's gift to Colombian collections exceeded $100 million. It is not for nothing that the influential Colombian magazine Semana named Fernando Botero among the ten most popular personalities.

Four evenings “spent” with Botero’s painting somehow reconciled me with the artist’s work. Either because I recognized myself in some of Botero’s heroes, or because there were so many paintings that they no longer caused surprise and misunderstanding. In the same way, at one time I did not fall in love, but with my mind I accepted Picasso’s square women. And I would like to finish the post with the “series” of double paintings collected from Botero, which I mentioned at the beginning.

F.Botero Cat on the Roof 1976
F. Botero Thief 1980

F. Botero Man on horse
F. Botero Man on a horse 1998

F. Botero The Kidnapping of Europe 1995
F. Botero The Kidnapping of Europe 1998

Fernando Botero Angulo(Spanish) Fernando Botero Angulo, R. 1932) is a contemporary Colombian artist.

Biography, creativity

Fernando Botero Angulo born April 19, 1932 in Medellin (Colombia). His father was a salesman and died of a heart attack when the boy was only four years old. The future artist’s mother worked as a seamstress and raised three sons. Uncle Fernando helped the family, but there was still not enough money. In addition, the upbringing of children was based on Catholic traditions and hard work, the result of which can be considered the fact that Botero did not visit museums and was not familiar with the main trends in modern art, but he often visited Catholic churches, where I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the works of medieval masters.

Fernando Botero received his education first at the Jesuit school, and then at the bullfighting school, where he entered at the insistence of his uncle. However, the matador career of young Botero was cut short literally in the very first days, when the boy was injured in one of the training fights. Over the next two years, he already painted watercolors, although he continued to study to become a matador - his uncle’s influence was still great. In 1946, Fernando left school, and in 1948, together with some other Colombian artists, he exhibited his work to the public for the first time.

Botero continued to receive secondary education in the third school, while working as an illustrator for the newspaper El Colombiano (Spanish: El Colombiano) and sometimes publishing articles about other artists, including Picasso. Finding a response among young people, Bogotá alienated conservative circles, which led to him being expelled from school again and resulting in his education at the Lyceum of the University of Antioquia, where he spent all his earned money on tuition fees. In 1951, Botero moved to Bogota, where his first solo exhibition took place that same year. Becoming more and more famous in the art circles of what was then Colombia, in 1952 he and a group of artists toured Spain, visiting Madrid and staying in Barcelona.

Spain made an impression on Fernando Botero and in the same 1952 he entered the San Fernando Art School in Madrid. Soon, however, the artist moved to Florence, where he studied with Professor Bernard Berenson at the Academy of St. Mark (1953-1954). There he continued to study classical painting and became acquainted with the art of the Italian Renaissance and the technique of creating frescoes. Later, returning to Colombia for some time, Botero organized his first personal opening day at the Leo Matis gallery. Recalling his life in Europe at that time, Botero said: “I spent the last of my money on museums and art albums, forgetting about food. Admiration for the great Italian masters changed my life overnight.”

Simultaneously with all this, in 1952, the artist participated in the National art salon Columbia, presenting his film “By the Sea” to the jury and ultimately taking second place. Botero's works of that period are extremely heterogeneous; the artist had not yet found his own style and continued to experiment with forms. In addition, it is difficult to single out several masters who influenced him. Among his teachers he can include both Renaissance painters and his contemporaries. Art critic Roberta Smith, criticizing Botero’s figurative art (she wrote about his later works that they were “inflated rubber dolls”), in early work The artist saw continuous borrowings, without any structure, imitation of everyone from Paul Gauguin to Diego Rivera and Jose Orozco. It must be said that when getting acquainted with the paintings of new artists, she uses the following approach as a method: she tries to understand which works of classics reminds her of new job and what exactly this is embodied in. Then she mentally “deletes” everything borrowed and tries to analyze the remainder, i.e. something that is theoretically new and therefore represents a certain “art value”. In the case of early Botero, it was almost impossible to find anything “new,” but the number of borrowings and determinants was abnormally high.

In 1955, a significant event happened in the life of Fernando Botero. While working on another painting ( "Still Life with Mandolin"), he slightly modified the shape of the depicted object, making the object deliberately large. This “mistake,” however, became the starting point for the formation of the artist’s original style and laid the foundation for his endless “volumetric” figures, which brought him worldwide fame.

Also in 1955, Boreto married Gloria Zea (English: Gloria Zea; she later served as director of the Museum of Modern Art in Bogota (Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogota, El MAMBO) and Minister of Culture of Colombia). In 1958 the artist won Grand Prize at SALON DE Artistas Colombianos in Bogota, after which his career took off sharply. He soon began to call himself “the most Colombian of Colombian artists,” which found support (especially outside Colombia), and his exhibitions began to be held in Europe and the United States.

Despite the fact that the marriage with Cea produced three children (Fernando, Lina and Juan Carlos), the couple broke up in 1960 and after the divorce, Fernando himself moved to New York, where he lived for the next 14 years. In the first years, there was not enough money, and the artist did not know English well, which only added to the problems. At a certain point in time, Boreto discovered that there was a demand for paintings “in the style of the old masters” and adapted his painting style to the Western European “classical” school.

In 1964, Botero began living with Cecilia Zambrano. In 1974, their son Pedro was born, but already in 1975 they separated. In 1979, Botero was sent to car accident while his son was in the car. That. At the age of five, the boy died, which was a serious blow for the artist.

In 1970, Fernando Botero managed to ensure that some of his paintings were exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery. These works are very short term became extremely popular and when Botero returned to Europe, he discovered that he was a very successful artist. It must be said that the themes of Botero’s works are different. Many of his paintings are in one way or another dedicated to Colombia. He portrays how ordinary people("Maiden", 1974), and politicians ("The President", 1987), mafiosi ("The Death of Pablo Escobar", 1999), etc. His anti-clerical works are also striking (“I Walk in the Hills,” 1977). In the second half of the 70s, Botero created his own versions of some classical paintings(“Mademoiselle Rivière Ingres”, “Mona Lisa”, “Sunflowers”).

In the late 90s, Botero created a number of films dedicated to the problems of crime in Colombia ("Slaughter of the Innocents", "Massacre in Colombia"). “The Most Colombian Artist” raises topics that are relevant, and therefore interesting and understandable to the average person. A series of paintings about the military’s abuse of prisoners in the notorious prison is also filled with the same “civilian” theme. "Abu Ghraib".

Fernando Botero also made his mark as a sculptor, making several of his “voluminous” figures in bronze (“Cat” in Barcelona). Stylistically, these works can be considered sculptural images typical images masters One of them (“Still Life with Watermelon”, 1976-1977) was donated by the artist to the Hermitage and is currently exhibited in the Hall of 20th Century European and American Art.

In 1992, the then mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, allowed Botero to organize a solo exhibition directly on the Champs Elysees. It should be noted that not one foreign artist Until that moment, I had never received such an honor.

Currently, various cities invite Fernando Botero to create works for certain city holidays. The artist worked in this way in Madrid, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Monte Carlo, Florence, etc. In addition, his paintings and sculptures are very popular and are bought for quite a lot of money (“Breakfast on the Grass” was sold for a million dollars).

Botero's last wife was the French-Greek artist Sophia Vari. The couple currently lives in Italy. It is also interesting to note that in his personal life Botero prefers not to overweight women. In one interview, the master stated that he “loved three women, and they were all thin.” In addition, the artist always denied that he was depicting “fat people,” claiming that he was simply “painting three-dimensionally.”

Despite the great demand, Boreto often donates his works. In Colombia, this brought him fame and the love of many fellow citizens. The influential Colombian magazine Semana even included him among the ten most popular personalities in the country. It is known that, for example, he donated a collection of paintings with an approximate value of 60 million dollars to the Museum of Fine Arts in Bogota (this was Botero’s personal collection, which contained works artists XIX-XX centuries), and as a gift to his hometown of Medellin, Botero gave 18 sculptures and almost a hundred paintings, which laid the foundation for the exhibition of the Place des Arts.

The creative legacy of Fernando Botero is enormous. He created about 3,000 paintings and more than 200 sculptures. In addition, he owns a huge number of different sketches, drawings and watercolors. Works of this artist sometimes called kitsch, but, of course, questions genre classification remain open. It should be noted that Botero’s work is almost impossible to consider in the context of development Western European art the second half of the 20th century, because the artist himself, even in New York, acted in isolation, almost unresponsive to the challenges and responses characteristic of this most modern art.

Fernando Botero was born in 1932 in the city of Medellin, known throughout the world for its drug cartel. His family lost their fortune, and his father died when the future artist was still very young. As a child, Fernando dreamed of becoming a bullfighter, but at the age of 15 he suddenly told his mother that he wanted to become an artist and nothing else. This did not at all fit into the plans of his conservative relatives, who believed that art could be a hobby, but not a profession. Despite this, Botero gradually ensured that his illustrations began to appear in the newspaper El Colombiano. He worked as an illustrator until 1951, when he decided to leave for Europe in search of new knowledge.

This was his first trip outside his homeland. He reached Spain by ship. Already in Madrid I enrolled in the art school of San Fernando. After some time, he came to Florence, where he studied at the Academy of St. Mark with Professor Bernard Berenson. There he met Italian Renaissance. Later, in 1952, Botero returned to his homeland and staged his first opening day at the Leo Mathis Gallery.

Also in 1952, he took part in the competition of the National Art Salon, where his painting “By the Sea” received second place. But, in general, the young artist did not stand out much among hundreds of his talented compatriots. His paintings were so diverse that visitors initially thought it was an exhibition of several artists. The range of artists who influenced his early paintings ranged from Paul Gauguin to the Mexican painters Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. True, the young self-taught man from a town in the Andes had never seen the original works of these artists, as well as others. His acquaintance with painting was limited to reproductions from books.

Until 1955, Botero painted mainly ordinary men, women and animals, then he had not yet discovered either the “fat girls” or the monumental sculptures to which he owes his worldwide fame. They “came” as if by accident, when one day in “Still Life with Mandolin” the instrument suddenly “fatted” to the point of ridiculousness. This was the moment of truth for Botero - he found his niche in art.

In 1964, Fernando married Gloria Sea, who subsequently bore him three children. Later they moved to Mexico, where they experienced great financial difficulties. This was followed by a divorce, and then the artist moved to New York. The money quickly ran out, and his knowledge of English left much to be desired. Then the artist remembered his “European” experience and began to copy the old masters.

At the same time, he worked on his own works, and soon, in 1970, he exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery. That's how it began world fame. Botero returned to Europe, and this time his arrival was triumphant.

Now Botero creates in different countries of the world: in his home in Paris he paints large canvases, in Italy he spends the summer with his sons and grandchildren, creates sculptures, on the Cote d'Azur and in New York he paints with watercolors and ink. Already, Botero’s creative heritage is enormous - it includes almost 3 thousand paintings and more than 200 sculptural works, as well as countless drawings and watercolors. In no other subject do Botero manifest three-dimensional forms as aggressively as in nude female images; no other motif of his artistic world remains so long in the memory as these heavy figures with exaggeratedly full hips and legs. They are the ones that evoke the strongest feelings in the viewer: from rejection to admiration.

His conquest of Paris ended a fifteen-year struggle for success and transformed him into one of the most important living artists in the world. In 1992, Jacques Chirac, then the mayor of Paris, invited Botero to hold a personal exhibition on the Champs Elysees. No foreign artist had ever received such an honor before.

Since then, different cities around the world have invited Fernando Botero to decorate the holidays with his creativity. This happened in Madrid, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Monte Carlo, Florence... Other cities purchased his works for very large sums, and many are in line.

His works are considered one of the most expensive in the world, for example, his painting “Breakfast on the Grass” was sold for a million dollars. Russia has it sculptural composition“Still Life with Watermelon” (1976-1977). He donated it to the Hermitage, where it is exhibited in the Hall of 20th Century European and American Art.

Botero has not become a hermit; he always responds to what is happening in the world. He recently created a series of paintings that tell about the abuse of the American military against prisoners in the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison.

The Abu Ghraib series, according to Botero, continues the theme of cruelty and violence in the world. It consists of 48 paintings and drawings depicting naked prisoners being hounded by dogs and beaten by jailers. The episode first aired in Colombia in April 2005. Botero said that the Abu Ghraib theme will be continued. “I haven’t said everything I want to say about this yet. There are also scenes of Afghan prisons and the American Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba,” says the artist.