Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero is a colombian artist who is known worldwide for creating large, bloated representations of people, animals, and elements that represent natural world. He found his inspiration in a great diversity of influences ranging from Renaissance masters such as Giotto and Paolo Uccello to the abstract expressionist movement that occurred during the twentieth century. His work is based on the construction of rounded figures and inflated forms.

Personal information

• When he was born: 19/04/1932
• Where he was born: Medellín, Colombia

Who is Fernando Botero?

A famous Colombian artist who stands out for his works and large swollen representations of different themes, author of the famous Mona Lisa in 1961, he uses abstract expressionism to represent the figures.

Biography of Fernando Botero

Botero was born in Medellín, Colombia, on April 19, 1932, and as a child, he attended a school that trained bullfighters during several years during his youth. Sometime later, he decided to leave the bull ring to pursue one of his greatest dreams, an artistic career. Botero’s paintings were first exhibited in 1948, when he was only 16 years old, and he had his first individual art exhibition two years after that date in Bogotá. In his early years, his work found great inspiration in pre-Columbian and Spanish colonial art and in some political murals that had been painted by Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Francisco de Goya and Diego Velázquez also played a determining role in his works. In 1950, Botero began studying painting in Madrid, and worked selling copies of paintings to tourists. In 1960 he decided to move to New York City, where he focused on building with more proportion and size, and it was then that he began to develop his characteristic style. After becoming known worldwide for his art, in 1973, Fernando Botero moved to Paris, where he began to create sculptures. In 1975, he devotes himself fully to sculpture in Pietrasanta and in 1977, he exhibited his bronze works at the Grand Paláis in Paris for the first time.

Characteristics

The main characteristics that we can observe in Botero’s work are the following;

• The inflated proportions of his works reflect political satire.
• He uses flat, bright colors and predominant shapes.
• He includes still life and landscapes in his works.
• Uses an exaggerated volume in his figures, but he does not allude to overweight, his works are more like a balloon full of air.
• In spite of having a lot of volume, his works flatten the perspective in first plane making us see the spherical figure in the space.
• The colors he uses are impeccably chosen by the artist and he uses them as a way of communication.
• He uses harmony and dissonance of colors.
• His painting technique makes his objective to give color to the sculpture in a homogeneous
• He uses chalk to finish his paintings and accentuates the luminous accents with white acrylic.
• His works include a wide range of nudes, still life, landscapes, saints, portraits and military situations.

Sculptures by Fernando Botero

There are many sculptures that Fernando Botero has created, all of them based on his enlargement technique, it is worth mentioning some of the most important ones, which, in fact, are being exhibited around the world.

• Maternity located and exhibited in Madrid, Spain.
• The Horse, a bronze sculpture of almost four meters, placed on a granite base which represents the Trojan Horse, full of circular volumes. It is one of his most representative works, mainly because of its size.
• Hand and Woman with a Mirror in Madrid.
• A woman reclining where she shows the artist’s love for blunt figures full of curves.
• The Rambla Cat from Raval in Barcelona.
• The Overweight women, sculptures that are exhibited worldwide.

Paintings by Fernando Botero

In one of his main paintings known as “A Family“, Fernando Botero shows his culture and the tradition, it is the typical portrait of a Colombian family. The painting acclaims costumbrismo and was painted with dark colors and strong contrasts, very close to the expressionism technique. Some other important works we can cite are:

• Amanda Ramirez’s house
• Massacre in Colombia
• Dead bishops, with eight different prelates stacked on top of each other.
• Dictator drinking chocolate, showing the disproportion between the military giant and the first lady.
• Family with Colombian Animals
• Ana Rosa Calderón’s Murder
• The bullfight, which was very famous in Europe and United States, and shows in a very personal way, the different themes of a plastic universe created by him.
• Mona Lisa at the age of twelve, which was one of his first works.
• Self-portrait according to Velázquez.