Fernando Botero Angulo (Medellín, 19 April 1932) was a Colombian painter, sculptor and designer.
She was born to businessman David Botero (1895-1936) and the second of three children, dressmaker Flora Angulo (1895-1972). His brother Rodrigo was born shortly after his father's death. Read the full biography
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Fernando Botero Angulo (Medellín, 19 April 1932) was a Colombian painter, sculptor and designer.
She was born to businessman David Botero (1895-1936) and the second of three children, dressmaker Flora Angulo (1895-1972). His brother Rodrigo was born shortly after his father's death. As a child he was fascinated by Baroque architecture and the illustrations of Gustave Doré's Divine Comedy. He later declared: "He never painted anything other than the world he knew in Medellín." At the age of 16 he was already drawing illustrations for a supplement to the Columbia Journal, his hometown's largest newspaper. At a very young age, he exhibited for the first time in Medellín in 1948.
He finally arrived in Italy, where he was exposed to the major works of the Italian Renaissance, particularly those of Giotto and Andrea Mantegna, who were so inspired by him that he copied many of them. This masterpiece at the same time does not despise other authors of the School of Siena and Tuscany. Overall, in 1952 he won second prize at the Salon IX of Colombian artists at the National Library of Bogota with Sula Costa: he invested the prize money in a study trip to Europe. In Spain, he visited the Prado Museum in Madrid, where he also learned about works by the likes of Francisco Goya and Titian. In Paris he meditated on the French avant-garde and decided to take an interest in ancient painters.
In 1955 Fernando Botero returned to his hometown, married Gloria Zea, then Colombian Minister of Culture, and began to exhibit his works, but he was strongly criticized because the Colombian environment of the time was influenced by the strong influence of the art of French avant-garde. Botero however refused. Not understood by the Colombian environment, Botero moved to Mexico, where he discovered for the first time the possibility of expanding and expanding the volume of the form in a personal way. A characteristic that will strongly influence his work. But it was in 1957, thanks to a visit to a museum in New York, that he discovered abstract expressionism in a personal exhibition in Washington. Also in 1957 he returned to Bogotá, where he won second prize at the 10th Colombian Artists' Salon. In 1958 he received the chair of painting at the Academy of Arts in Bogota. He eventually won first prize at the 11th Salon for his work The Bride's Room. In the same year he exhibited again at the Grace Gallery in Washington. All his works were sold on the day of the inauguration.
Diego Velázquez's research began in 1959: Botero in fact created many versions of Niño de Vallecas, in which his very incisive style was influenced by Abstract Expressionism.
His nomination to the Colombian Biennial was controversial, for which Botero was forced to leave his country, in precarious economic conditions. The Washington Grace Gallery, which had supported him until then, closed and the artist was forced to endure severe financial difficulties and divorce his wife. Something seemed to change in 1961: MoMA decided to buy her Mona Lisa when she was 12, but her first exhibition in New York proved to be a failure.
In 1966 his first solo exhibition was held in Europe, especially in Germany. A new exhibit at the Milwaukee Arts Center has received rave reviews. He began to exhibit regularly in Europe, New York and Bogota. He studied the works of Albrecht Dürer, Edouard Manet and Pierre Bonnard. In 1963 he moved to the East Side and rented a new studio in New York. This is where his modeling style emerges in many works from this period, with soft, delicate colors. She fell in love with Pieter Paul Rubens and, like him, became an important collector of art, which she later donated to the Bogotá Museum that bears her name. In 1964, four years after the divorce, he married for the second time.
He exhibited in Paris in 1969 and settled in Paris in 1973, where he continued to work on sculpture. In the mid-1970s he dedicated himself almost entirely to sculpture, exhibiting his works in Paris in 1977. In 1983 he returned to Italy and opened a studio in Pietrasanta, where he stayed a few months a year, near the marble quarry. In the city of Versilia he created two frescoes depicting paradise and hell in the church of Misericordia.
In 1975, following the tragic death of his third son Pedro in a car accident in 1974, his second marriage ends (with Cecilia Zambrano) and will bring his numerous works dedicated to him. In the same dramatic event, Fernando Botero lost the last phalanx of his right little finger, which would lead him to often sculpt large hands. The eldest son, Fernando Botero Zea, is the Colombian Defense Minister. In 1978 he married Sofia Vari.
Among the most important events was the exhibition of his monumental sculptures on the Champs-Élysées in 1992 and in the public spaces of some European cities in 1994. The Municipality of Siena commissioned him in 2002 to create the flag of the Palio on 16 August. . On 21 October 2007, seven bronze statues worth around 4 million euros were stolen from the Pietrasanta studio, including Adam, a dog, a cat's tail, a woman with a cap for her hands, a dancer, a motion ballerina and sparrows. In May 2008, three statues were found and the perpetrators were arrested.
In 2012 he donated 27 Crossroads paintings to the Antioquia Museum in Colombia, which have been exhibited in New York, Medellin, Lisbon, Panama and Palermo.
