FERNANDO BOTERO

 “Nowadays any art that produces pleasure is
considered suspect”

 

 April 19, 1932 - September 15, 2023 Medellin,
Antioch- Pietrasanta Italy

He was a Colombian painter, sculptor and figurative draftsman. He is recognized for his characters with round and voluptuous shapes inspired by pre-Columbian art.

His work Still Life with Mandolin, dating from 1957, constitutes the first manifestation of his work inspired by pre-Columbian and popular art. Having ironically nicknamed himself "the most Colombian of Colombian artists," his career truly began in 1958, when he won first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos. 

 

Parents 

• David Boatswain Flora

• Angle Spouse
  

• Cecilia Zambrano 

• Gloria Zea

• Sophia Vari Sons Fernando. Boatman Zea Lina Boatman Zea. Juan Carlos Boatman Zea Peter. Boatman Zambrano

   Education
  

• Educated at Universidad

• Nacional de Colombia Royal

• Academy of Fine Arts of

• San Fernando

His first works (portraits, landscapes and scenes of manners) were made with a very loose brushstroke, which would gradually become impasto, while both the perspective and the figures became arbitrary. In the early sixties, Fernando Botero settled in New York, where his paintings earned him notable popularity in the American art market. Among his best-known works are The Bridal Bedchamber, Mona Lisa at Twelve Years and El Quite.

In the 1980s Fernando Botero became one of the most sought-after living artists in the world, and some of his sculptures made in bronze, marble and cast resin (Woman on a Horse, Dog, The Bullfight, etc.) became an integral part of the urban landscape of many cities.

Botero is so relevant to the capital of Antioquia that, in 2002, a plaza was inaugurated in his honor with 23 works that he himself donated. Ten years later, Fernando Botero donated the original Viacrucis paintings, which expose a contemporary perspective of religion; during the exhibition of these works, more than five thousand people attended the Medellín Museum.

Where to see the works?

To date, Plaza Botero is considered a public museum, since the artists' works are outdoors and free for locals and visitors who visit it. In this iconic place you will find 23 bronze figures that contain all the essence of the master. For those who wish to visit it, Plaza Botero is located in the heart of the city on Carabobo Avenue in Plazuela Nutibara.