FERNANDO BOTERO

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Born in Medellín in 1932 – Although he spent a short time in his youth at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid and the San Marcos Academy in Florence, his artistic training was self-taught. His first known works are the illustrations he published in the literary supplement of the newspaper El Colombiano, in his hometown.

At 19, he traveled to Bogotá, where he presented his first solo exhibition of watercolors, gouaches, inks, and oils at the Leo Matiz Gallery, and with the proceeds, he lived for a time in Tolú. During his stay there, he created the oil painting "Facing the Sea," with which he won second prize (awarded two thousand pesos) at the IX Annual Salon of Colombian Artists. Critic Walter Engel, writing in El Tiempo on August 17, 1952, found it to have "a vigorous, well-constructed, and well-executed composition," but writer Luis Vidales criticized it for its "unconceptual elongation of the figures."

Botero traveled to Europe, where he lived for four years in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, and Florence. Although he enrolled in art academies, he continued his artistic development through reading, visiting museums, and painting. Back in Colombia, Botero shared the second prize and silver medal at the 10th Salon of Colombian Artists with Jorge Elías Triana and Alejandro Obregón . His oil painting, Contrapunto (Counterpoint), was unanimously praised by critics for its infectious joy.

Between 1961 and 1973, he resided in New York. Later, he lived in Paris, alternating his residence in the French capital with extended stays in Pietrasanta or his estate in the Cundinamarca town of Tabio. Around 1964, Fernando Botero made his first forays into the field of sculpture.

From 1975 onwards, in Pietrasanta, he devoted himself to sculpture with enthusiasm: "It seemed as if that entire universe of monumental figures that he developed in painting," writes Escallón, "had found a complete echo in three-dimensionality. Today, one feeds the other. Much of the imaginative richness comes from painting, which gives him ideas, solutions, possibilities... Botero dismantles the pictorial structure to synthesize the form into a sculptural unity."

In 1977, he exhibited his bronzes for the first time at the Grand Palais in Paris. After four decades of uninterrupted work, his recognition in the field of sculpture also became universal. The exhibition of his enormous sculptures on the Champs-Élysées in Paris during the summer of 1992 was a resounding success, as were the following year's exhibitions on Fifth Avenue in New York, in Buenos Aires, and in Madrid.

Having become one of the most sought-after living artists in the world, Botero never stopped, however, raising his voice against injustice and keeping his art in line with historical and social reality.