Fernando Botero: “The famous Belly Creator. Unusual places and monuments Formation of individual style

On his colorful canvases, kitsch and folk color coexist with the Italian Renaissance
and colonial baroque. Fernando Botero does not hide his passion for fat people,
he depicts exclusively fat people; everyone is fat - people, horses, dogs, even apples.

Born on April 19, 1932 in the city of Medellin (Colombia), known in the world for its cartel
drug dealers, in the family of a businessman. His family lost their fortune and his father died when
the 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 for several months to
school of matadors (recording these impressions in his first drawings dedicated to bullfighting).

However, at the age of 15, he surprised his entire family with the news that he intended to
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
with local avant-garde artists inspired by Mexican revolutionary art.

Botero, as an illustrator, gradually achieved that his drawings on various topics
designed articles for 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
homeland. He reached Spain by ship. Already in Madrid I enrolled in an 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.

After some time he came to Florence, where he studied at the Academy of San Marco (1953-1954)
from Professor Bernard Berenson. There he became acquainted with the Italian art of the era
Renaissance. Later, in 1952, he returned to his homeland and organized his first opening day at the gallery
Leo Mathis. But, in general, the young artist did not stand out much among hundreds of his talented
compatriots. His paintings were so heterogeneous that visitors initially thought
that this is an exhibition of several artists.

The range of artists who influenced his first paintings ranged from Paul Gauguin to
Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. True, the young self-taught
town in the Andes have never seen the original works of these artists, as, indeed,
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 won
second place with his work "By the Sea". In 1956 he visited Mexico.

From 1960 he lived in New York, often visiting Paris, then (from 1983) he lived in a Tuscan town
Pietrasanta. At the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. became the most famous of Latin American artists
his generation. Since 1973, he became more and more actively involved in sculpture, varying the same
hypertrophied-lush figures of people and animals. These works decorated many cities
world (Medellin, Bogota, Paris, Lisbon, etc.) in the form of original heroic-comic monuments.

“I heard somewhere that men lie when they say they like dry wine and
skinny women, they actually love beer and fat women.”
Fernando Botero. Triumph of the flesh.

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. Works of Botero,
be it painting, sculpture or graphics, are easily recognizable, and, if you have seen them once,
you'll never forget.

In no other theme do Botero display volumetric 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.

He developed his characteristic style in the second half of the 1950s. Until 1955, its main
the subjects were ordinary men and horses, then I had not yet discovered either “fat girls” or
monumental sculptures to which he owes his worldwide fame. They "came" as if
by chance, 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.

Elements of 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 the graphics are emphatically lush, smugly swollen, in sleepy peace - this
magical trance resembles a provincial-stagnant and at the same time “magical” atmosphere
stories by J. L. Borges and novels by G. G. Marquez.

The painting and sculpture of Botero are recognized in the world too seriously, as they say, “for great
money". The author takes advantage of this, releasing a huge number of works, all the time
returning to the same plots and themes. Because of this, “growth” is not visible in his paintings
masters”, if you don’t know the years of creation of many of the works, then the paintings painted with differences
at 10-15 years old, they look like works made in one year.

His works are listed 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
impressionism by Edouard Manet, painted by Fernando Botero in 1969. Only if you
Manet's dressed men found themselves in the company of naked women, Botero's monumental
the 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.

At the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. became the most famous of the Latin American artists of his generation.
Already, Botero’s creative heritage is enormous - it is almost 3 thousand paintings and
more than 200 works of sculpture, as well as countless drawings and watercolors.
In Russia there is his work “Still Life with Watermelon” (1976-1977), donated by the author
State Hermitage Museum and exhibited in the Hall of Art of Europe and America of the 20th Century.

Since 1973, he became more and more actively involved in sculpture, varying in it the same hypertrophied-lush
figures of people and animals. Botero's characters do not seem "inflated", they are heavy and petrified.
That is why the Colombian master, no less than painting, is famous for his sculpture:
bronze and marble are the most suitable materials for his gigantic figures.
These works decorated many cities of the world (Medellin, Bogota, Paris, Lisbon, etc.)
in the form of peculiar heroic-comic monuments.

The artist's generosity is legendary in Colombia. For example, the Museum of Fine Arts
Bogota, he donated a collection of paintings estimated at $60 million. As a gift to a loved one
the artist donated 18 sculptures from those shown at exhibitions in Madrid to the city of Medellin,
Paris, New York, Chicago, and almost a hundred paintings that formed the basis of the exhibition of the Square
Art. In total, the artist's gift to Colombian collections exceeded 100 million
dollars. No wonder the influential magazine Semana in Colombia is in the top ten most popular
Fernando Botero also named individuals.

In 2014, a complex of buildings of the Port Plaza business center was built on the site of the former Greyfer experimental plant. And in 2016, original sculptures appeared on its buildings - figures of a horse and a young lady lying on the back of a bull. Their unusualness lies in their shapes, which appear unnaturally bloated and rounded.

These are copies of works by the famous sculptor of Colombian origin Fernando Botero. He became famous for his works, in which literally everything (from people and animals to ordinary objects) is exaggeratedly inflated. This applies to both paintings and sculptures.

It is interesting that until the mid-50s Botero worked in the usual manner: people are like people, animals are like animals. A sharp turn occurred quite by accident when the artist was creating “Still Life with Mandolin”. He noticed that the musical instrument turned out to be too bloated. At first it seemed just funny and funny, but as a result it degenerated into Botero’s signature and unique style.

Botero's paintings are included in the collections of many museums around the world, and his sculptures are installed in many cities. "Horse" and "The Rape of Europa" in Moscow are copies of famous sculptures, and not the only ones. Therefore, it is now difficult to say where exactly the originals are located.

By the way...

Botero does not hesitate to paint not only his own original works in his own style, but also creates “copies” of famous paintings. Even in his self-portraits, he depicts himself in his own unique manner. As an example, I give one of the self-portraits and a copy of the famous “Mona Lisa”.

- one of the most famous Latin American artists. His style and technique is called figurative art. He depicts exclusively overweight people and fat people. In all his paintings there are only complete characters, and everyone - people, horses, dogs, even objects and fruits. About his works, Fernando says: “With forms and volumes, I try to influence people’s feelings and sensuality, meaning by sensuality not only voluptuousness and eroticism.” Indeed, his paintings and sculptures are quite unusual and make a different impression on everyone, but everyone who has ever seen his works will definitely never forget them.

Biography of Botero

Fernando was born on April 19, 1932 in the city of Medellín, South America, province of Antigua. He himself calls this city the “Industrial Capital of Colombia.” He was the second of three sons of David Botero (1895-1936) and Flora Angulo (1898-1972). His father was a traveling merchant and traveled through the mountainous, inaccessible region of the province, reaching the most distant places. His mother worked as a seamstress. Fernando's family lost their fortune, and his father died of a heart attack when Fernando was only 4 years old, 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 could never fill. Uncle Botero played an important role in his life. Today Medellin is a modern and large metropolis. In the early 1930s, it was a small provincial town, where the Catholic Church played a significant role in the life of the people of the city. Fernando received his primary education in Antioquia (Antioquia - one of the departments of Colombia), at the Ateneo school and, thanks to a scholarship, he continued his secondary education at the Jesuit school Bolivar (Bolivar - one of the departments of Colombia). This school had fairly strict discipline and the teachers were priests of the Jesuit Order. Perhaps such asceticism in his upbringing prompted Fernando to begin to draw and reveal his talent as an artist.

As a teenager, Fernando developed a lifelong love for bullfighting, which is so popular in South America. From the age of 13, he began to draw bullfights, depicting fights and their participants - bulls, bullfighters, matadors and picadors. Like many in South America, Fernando dreamed of becoming a bullfighter in his youth. In 1944, Botero's uncle sent him to a school for matadors, where he studied for two years. But at the age of 15, Fernando 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.

In 1948, Botero, at the age of 16, published his first illustrations in the Sunday supplement "El Colombiano", one of the most influential newspapers in Medellin. He used the money to attend high school at the Lyceum Marinilla in Antioquia. At the age of 17, Fernando wrote an article “Picasso and nonconformism in art” where he discussed surrealism and abstract painting. Fernando exhibited his works for the first time in 1948, at a group exhibition together with other artists from the region.

From 1949 to 1950, Botero worked as a stage designer before he was able to organize his first exhibition in Bogotá.

In 1951, at the age of 19, he had his first personal exhibition and sale of paintings in the Leo Matiz gallery, Bogotá. Each of his works was sold.

Like many artists, Botero went to Europe to study European schools of painting and the works of masters. In 1952, Botero traveled with a group of artists to Barcelona, ​​where he stayed briefly before moving to Madrid. In Madrid, Botero studied at the Academy of Art of San Fernando where he began to create works in the style of Velázquez and Francisco Goya. Then he returned to his homeland in the city of Bogota, where he had a personal exhibition. In the same year, he took part in the competition of the National Art Salon, where his painting “By the Sea” received second place.

In 1953, Botero moved to Paris, where he spent most of his time at the Louvre studying works of art.
From 1953 to 1954 he lived in Florence, Italy and studied at the Accademia di St. Mark's the works of the Renaissance masters and the fresco painting techniques of the Italian masters of that era.

In 1956, Fernando studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Bogota. Fernando traveled through South America and visited Mexico, where he studied the works of Diego Rivera and Orozco. In Mexico, his work was greatly influenced by the large painted murals on the walls of buildings.

Until 1955, Botero painted in the usual classical manner and his subjects were not exaggeratedly inflated. For the first time, an increase in shapes occurred in the still life “Mandolin”, where the musical instrument was depicted unusually swollen. This is how Fernando managed to find his unique niche in art. Botero finally formed his own unique style around 1964. These were images of people, animals, trees, still lifes, characterized by inflated forms and almost invisible, like a varnished surface of the paintings.

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 the artist moved to New York, where in 1969 Fernando Botero held a large exhibition of his work entitled “Inflated Images” at the Museum of Modern Art, which acquired the Colombian’s first painting, the painting “Mona Lisa at 12.” This exhibition strengthened his reputation as an artist. In 1970, Botero exhibited his works at the Marlborough Gallery, New York, and we can say that his world fame began with this coin.

In Botero's works we see an unusual mixture of elements of Italian and Spanish Renaissance-Baroque, and at the same time Latin American Baroque, along with iso-folklore and kitsch in the style of “naive art” and features of primitivism. His works often remind people of the work of the famous Colombian - Gabriel García Márquez. In his paintings, Fernando also parodies and copies in exaggerated forms paintings from different periods of art, including paintings by Bonnard and Jacques-Louis David. At different periods, his paintings show the influence of Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, the art of the Indian tribes of Central and South America, especially Olmec sculpture. His paintings have also been compared to the works of Peter Paul Rubens, whom Botero has always admired. Botero wrote that in the works of Rubens - “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..”. Fernando's work is always inflated, exaggerated forms and often looks like satire. Persons of power and strength, images of presidents, soldiers and priests are often present in his paintings and are a target for Fernando Botero. Botero especially vividly and aggressively shows voluminous forms in nude female images. It is these overweight figures with exaggeratedly full hips and legs that evoke the strongest feelings in the viewer - from rejection to admiration. Botero himself once said: “In art, while we can create and think, we are forced to distort nature. Art is always a distortion.”

At the moment, the number of works by Botero is quite large - almost 3 thousand paintings and more than 200 sculptural works, as well as countless drawings and watercolors. Since 1973, Botero has been increasingly involved in sculpture, reflecting in it the same hypertrophied and magnificent figures of people and animals. Botero's characters do not seem "inflated", they look truly heavy and petrified. That is why the Colombian master is famous for his sculpture no less than for painting: bronze and marble are the most successful materials for his monumental figures. His works adorn famous cities of the world (Medellin, Bogota, Paris, Lisbon, etc.) in the form of non-standard heroic and comic monuments.

In 1992, Jacques Chirac, then the mayor of Paris, invited Botero to hold a personal exhibition on the Champs Elysees. No foreign artist in France had ever received such an honor before. After this, different cities around the world began to invite Fernando to participate in various exhibitions on the occasion of the celebrations, so that the artist would give greater scope and color to these celebrations with his works.

Botero's generosity knows no bounds and is legendary in Colombia. Thus, he donated a collection of paintings worth $60 million to the Bogota Museum of Fine Arts. The artist donated 18 sculptures to his hometown of Medellin, from those 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 gifts to Colombian collections exceeded $100 million. The influential magazine Semana in Colombia named Fernando Botero among the ten most popular personalities. Botero donated his bronze sculpture “Still Life with Watermelon” (1976-1977) to the St. Petersburg Hermitage and it is on display in the Hall of 20th Century European and American Art.

Fernando Botero now lives in Paris and creates in different parts of the globe. His works have transformed Botero into one of the world's most important living artists. By the way, his works are considered among the most expensive in the world. For example, “Lunch on the Grass” - a paraphrase of the famous painting of the same name by the founder of impressionism Edouard Manet, painted by Fernando in 1969 - was sold at Sotheby's for $1 million.

Fernando Botero celebrated his 80th birthday (2012) in the quiet Italian town of Pietrasanta ( Pietrasanta) in northwestern Tuscany ( Italian Toscana), in the foothills of the Apuan Alps ( Italian Alpi Apuane), where he organized an exhibition of his creations. For the artist, this city is a favorite place for a summer vacation with his family. Here he is known and loved, and many people came to see Fernando’s sculptures in the improvised open-air gallery. The master presented six monumental works in Piazza Duomo, which looked like real giants, and a dozen smaller works that decorated the space around the Church of San Agostino, next to which a series of watercolors created by the artist for his anniversary was exhibited in a special room.

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).
At the first stages of his creative career, Botero did not have a specific style and painted paintings in different styles. His search for himself reminds me of early Picasso, when he, drawing from early childhood, tried different stylistic directions 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 cost 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?