ArtTour International Magazine
Fernando Botero
“ e Fullness of e Form”
Botero was born on April 19, 1932, in Medellín, Colombia; his parents were Mr. David Botero Mejia and Mrs. Flora Angulo Jaramillo. He had two brothers: John David and Rodrigo. At twelve years old, Botero entered the school of bullfighters in his hometown. He gave up the idea of becoming a matador when he faced the first heifers. From this experience, he developed a great fondness for bullfighting, which he expressed in his series "La Corrida." The first drawings he made were for the Sunday supplement of the newspaper El Colombiano of Medellín. Then he was inspired by the posters drawn by Ruano Llopis announcing the bullfights in Spain and painted watercolors with bullfighting themes.
I met Fernando Botero in 1976, on the occasion of the publication of the book Botero, a novel about his life and work, written by the German critic, Klaus Gallwitz, who was the Director of the Museum of Frankfurt. My father published the novel, Raul Aguilar Rodas, in Spanish, and published jointly with Verlag Gerd Hatje from Stuttgart, Germany.
In this book, there is a description that Botero made of himself, in an interview he gave to the journalist Dario Arizmendi Posada in El Colombiano during May of 1976. Thirty-six years have gone by, and this is his testimony:
"For me, painting is a real necessity; something that, if kept inside, will suffocate one - kill one. When I'm working, only the canvas exists, and my only concern is to let my imagination flow naturally and that all the series of images come out. My works are not caricatures –they are deformation, and that is the art. In my case, it's my style, dating from the early watercolors and drawings I painted in 1947. Since I began, I felt the desire to find these forms of expression that have become my own language - something subconscious over time. Given the nature and volume of my work, many may think that I am interested in fat, which is absurd. I was always passionate about the fullness of the form, which is different. This explains why some people sometimes react violently at first against my paintings. But when they understand them, when they enter them, they love them. If I do not paint daily, I find the days eternal. For me, it is a matter of joy, pleasure, and infinite happiness. On the other hand, my paintings are born by ideas that go through my mind and translate into quick notes. After these sketches, the biggest concerns arise, along with more complex drawings. If they
reach the necessary density with time, they then become oil paintings or drawings: works. I paint the Latin American world in all its fullness – landscapes and people and political situations. Within the awful reality of military dictatorships are incredible artistic possibilities and poetic ones. They also have a satirical dimension although the ridicule is in its reality."
In 1948, Botero participated in the first Exhibition of Antioquian Painters in Medellín. He settled in Bogota and, in 1951, held his first solo exhibition at the Leo Matiz Gallery. The following year he made a second exhibition in the same gallery and made more significant financial gains from his sales. Months later, he won the Painting National Prize at the IX Salon of Colombian Artists with his painting "Seated Woman."
In 1952, he went to Europe to pursue a career in the arts and hone his talents. He entered the San Fernando Academy in Madrid. He discovered Goya and Velázquez in the Prado Museum. Afterward, he devoted himself to painting, and with the money raised by selling his paintings, he visited Rome, Florence, and Paris.
In Florence, he entered the School of Fine Arts to "learn how to paint," as he expressed it. For two years, he traveled on a Vespa scooter, visiting all the museums in Italy to study the great masters: Raphael, Leonardo, Piero della Francesca. This experience allowed him to learn the different schools, reinforce his knowledge of color, the composition, and the volume that would later characterize his work.
He traveled to Mexico in 1956. There he painted "Death Nature with Mandolin," which opened a definitive and unique space in his career, which he defines as crucial as "crossing a door into another room."
In 1960, he went to live in New York. He rented a small studio on McDougall Street without air conditioning or heating. He slept and painted with a coat on the long winter nights. His first year in this city was very difficult; he lived with limited economic resources, and his work was not widely accepted. The market was looking for abstract art, which was the opposite of the work done by Botero.
In 1960, the Museum of Modern Art's curator in New York (MoMA) approved the purchase of "Mona Lisa at Age 12", a work that had been completed a year earlier. The sale of his work to MoMA allowed him to receive greater appreciation from critics worldwide.
In New York, he met the German museum owner, Dietrich Mahlow, who appreciated Botero's works. He quickly organized five exhibitions in Germany, and in 1966, he exhibited at several galleries: Banden-Staatliche Kunsthlle of Baden-Baden, Buchholz Gallery in Munich, and Brusberg Gallery in Hanover. The most important and influential galleries in the world became interested in his work from the success obtained in those exhibits. The New York galleries that once closed their doors on him now began to open the doors.
In 1969, the Marlborough Gallery in New York welcomed him as an artist. His works were sold between $ 3,000 and USD 9,000. In 1973, four years later, his works were sold at USD 35,000. Today his works are sold at over USD 1.5 million.
In 1970, he and his second wife, Cecilia Zambrano, had their fourth child - Pedro, better known as Pedrito. In 1974, in an absurd car accident in Spain, Pedrito died. In this accident, Botero lost the joint of his little finger. This event was devastating to Botero. He locked himself into his studio to paint his son Pedrito. From this sad moment came the painting "Pedrito," which Botero considers "the most special" of his artistic production, for the personal meaning it holds. After the death of his son Pedrito, he divorced his second wife.
In 1975, he met Greek sculptor Sophia Vari; they later married. This same year, he dabbled with sculpture and dedicated himself to this discipline for the next ten years. In his sculptures, Botero pulls the voluptuousness and forms of his paintings. In 1980, he established his studio in Pietrasanta, Italy - a village of marble quarries and foundries. He has produced more than three hundred sculptures, and these have provided the universality of his artistic career.
Botero has exhibited his monumental sculptures in such significant sites as the Champs Elysees in Paris, where he made the biggest exhibition with thirty-two monumental sculptures; the Park Avenue in New York, the Paseo de Recoletos in Madrid, in the Plaza del Comercio in Lisbon, the
Piazza Della Signoria in Florence - in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, at the Pyramids of Egypt, in Tokyo, Washington, Jerusalem, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Venice, Singapore, and he continues being exhibited all around the world.
In 2011, his sculpture, "Dancers," was auctioned by Christie's at $ 1.76 million. His work has been prolific and colorful, full of voluptuous characters and objects that fall in a balanced and pragmatic environment; they can express satire, ridicule, contempt, love, or passion.
As Fernando Botero reaped success, he also became an important art collector and philanthropist.
In 1998, he offered to Medellín, his hometown, to donate his collection of international art and sculptures to be exhibited at the Museum of Antioquia. As political leaders in the city showed no interest, the proposal was exploited by the mayor of Bogota, Enrique Peñalosa. He housed the Luis Angel Arango Library collection, which belongs to the Banco de la República, Colombia's national bank. To Bogota, he donated 85 works from great artists such as M o n e t , R e n o i r, D e g a s , Caillebotte, Miró, Francis
Bacon, Dalí, Matisse, Henry
Moore, Marc Chagall, Gustav Klimt, Antonio Matta, Rufino Tamayo, Antonie Tàpies, Picasso, De Kooning, and others, along with 123 works of his creation.
To the Museum of Antioquia in Medellín, his hometown, he has donated 32 works by international artists and 176 pieces of his authorship since 1976. The latest donation was the entire collection of the "Viacrucis: The Passion of the Christ," composed of 27 large-format oil paintings and 33 drawings. With Fernando Botero's patronage, his home country now has two museums on par with the world's best international museums.
Botero is currently the most quoted living artist from Latin America. His works can be found in over 60 museums worldwide, and he has done more exhibitions in museums worldwide than any other artist. He is an artist of integrity - orderly and disciplined. He paints every day, which has allowed him to stay active for more than 65 years. He has workshops in Pietrasanta, Paris, New York, Greece, and Monte Carlo, where he makes smallformat works at his farm in the town of Tabio, on the outskirts of Bogota, and at his farm in Rionegro. Two words define Fernando Botero: generous and and rebellious.