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| Fernando
Botero |
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| The
Art World Legend
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--Fernando
Botero is one of the most successful contemporary artists right
now, his paintings sell for millions. The ageing Botero is returning
to his troubled homeland, Colombia, where he was raised in the
same city as the drug lord, Pablo Escobar, the subject of one
of Botero's most controversial paintings.
--The
artist has been target of kidnap attempts and must now be accompanied
everywhere by armed guards. --As
Fernando Botero touches down, a huge storm is blowing up over
his son, a charismatic politician dubbed the "Kennedy of
South America", Botero senior is mortified by his son's self-destruction
and anxious about the reception he himself will receive from his
long-suffering countrymen.
--Despite
millions in the bank, private jets at his beck and call, and homes
in Monte Carlo, Paris and Manhattan, among others, the Great Master
yearns to be accepted into the pantheon of great painters.
--Is
that why he has produced his boldest work in decades, paintings
that explore the horror of Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq ...?
--The
scandal over abuse at Abu Ghraib surfaced when pictures of guards
humiliating naked iraqi prisoners became public tarnishing the
military's image in Arab countries and worldwide, and sparking
wider investigations into detainee abuses.
--Botero
said his paintings are inspired more by written descriptions of
the abuse than by the photographs.
--Botero
said his intent is to emblazon the images upon the consciousness
of the world.
--"No
one would have ever remembered the horrors of Guernica if not
for the painting", said Botero, referring to Pablo Picasso's
masterpiece "Guernica" which depicts the aerial bombardment
of civilians during Spanish Civil War.
--This
is not the first time that Botero has depicted Violence.
--A
few years ago, he began painting scenes of bloodshed in Colombia.
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| --Fernando
Botero's self-identification as a man and artist from and of Colombia,
is the single most outstanding characteristic of his Art.
--In
fact, one could cite works in virtually any genre and analyse
them according to the specifically Colombian elements present
in them.
--We
have seen already how in his religious compositions, such as "Our
Lady of Colombia," the flag connotes national identity.
--It
is, however, the timeless and endlessly repetitive life of the
small towns of the interior of the country that provide immeasurable
fascination for Botero.
--Although
he grew up in Medellin, he and his family would spend parts of
the summers in a village at some distance from the city. This
place, El Escorial, remains today fairly similar to its aspect
of the 1930s.
---
In many of his paintings, Fernando Botero recalls both the mundane
and the extraordinary events of life in such a town.
--In
a painting such as the 1995 House, a woman stands in her doorway,
observing the passing scene. --Nothing
seems to change, but we know that any instant something amazing
- wonderful or horrifying - could happen.
--In
a 1994 compositions we observe just such an occurrence.
--The
Woman Falling from a Balcony, portrays a young woman, dressed
only in a green slip and green high heeled shoes, flying through
the air as she is observed by a man standing bellow.
--Does
this represent a terrible accident, a suicide or a vision of the
observer?
--We
can only know the ultimate outcome in our imaginations.
--In
paintings such as this, Botero seems to be creating visual analogues
to the extraordinary imagination of Gabriel García Márquez,
who, in his novels and short stories has created a world that
may be described as both banal and wondrous.
--The
imagination of the painter, like that of the writer, conjures
up fantastical happenings in village settings in which, seemingly,
little or nothing changes throughout the years.
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--The
Art of Botero is widely known, revered, paraphrased, imitated...
and copied. For many his characteristic rounded, sensuous forms
of the human figure, animal, still life’s and landscapes,
represent the most easily identifiable examples of the modern
Art of Latin America.
--For
others, he is a cultural hero.
--To
travel with Botero in his native Colombia, is to come to realize
that he is often seen less as an artist and more as a popular
cult figure.
--In
his native Medellin he is mobbed by people wanting to see him,
touch him or have him sign his name to whatever substance they
happen to be carrying.
--On
the other hand, Botero's work has been discredited by those theorists
of modern Art whose tastes are dictated more by intellectual fashion
than by the perception of the power of his images.
--Botero
is undoubtedly one of the most successful artists in both commercial
and popular terms, and an artist whose paintings deal with many
of the issues that have been at the heart of the Latin American
creative process in the twentieth century.
--An
indispensable figure on many international Art and social scenes
on at least three continents, Botero's 'persona' might be compared
to that of one of the seventeenth century artists he so much admires,
Peter Paul Rubens.
--Rubens
represents the epitome of the standard notions of the "Baroque".
His own fleshy, erotized figures exist in a world of exuberance
and plenitude in both the realms of the sacred and the profane.
--Like
Rubens, Botero is an individual whose intense engagement with
the world around him enriches his perceptions, heightens his discernment
of both the material and spiritual nature of specific things,
places and people.
--Also
in the manner of Rubens, Botero celebrates the palpable, quantifiable
tangibility’s of earthy existing without slighting more
ethereal values.
--Rubens
was a diplomat by both profession and character. Polished in manner
and eloquent in his words, he moved easily within many realms
of Baroque society in his native Flanders as well as in Italy,
England, France and Spain.
--Botero
is similarly peripatetic and likewise gifted in his comprehension
of the wide variety of human values and emotions.
--He
is, in both his personality and his Art, as comfortable with bullfighters
as with presidents, with nuns as with socialites.
--His
images of this range of types presents his audiences with a panoramic
view of the noble and the ignoble of modern society on both sides
of the Atlantic, above as well as bellow the Equator.
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--Fernando
Botero, born April 19, 1932 in Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia,
South America, came to prominence when he won the first prize
at the Salón de Artistas in 1958.
---
The Salon of Colombian Artists (Salón de Artistas Colombianos)
is a cultural event with most trajectory. --This
event is celebrated every year between August 5 and September
12 with two main categories, a national event and a set of regional
contests.-
--Throughout
his childhood, Botero was isolated from traditional Art presented
in museums and other cultural institutes.
--He
lost his father at the age of fourteen.
--At
the age of twelve Fernando Botero received training as a matador
along side his usual school education, Botero's first major subject
in his early paintings was the ring.
--In
1948, the artist had his first exhibition with other painters
from his home province of Antioquia in Medellin.
--In
1951 Botero moved to Bogotá, where he met the Colombian
Avant-garde surrounding the café "Automática".
--His
first solo exhibition at the Leo Matiz gallery followed after
only five months.
--In
1952, Botero travelled with a group of artists to Barcelona, where
he stayed only briefly before moving to Madrid.
--In
Madrid, the artist studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes
de San Fernando, located on Alcalá street in the heart
of Madrid.
--After
his studies at the Academia de San Fernando and the Prado museum,
Fernando Botero went to Italy, where he studied Art History.
--For
a long time he studied the technique of fresco painting and copied
works of Giotto and Andrea del Castagno.
--Two
years later, Botero returned to Bogotá.
--An
exhibition of the artist's works from Italy flopped.
--In
1956, he married Gloria Zea and moved to Mexico with her, where
he found his own style under the influence of the Mexican mural
painter, Diego Rivera.
---
Diego Rivera was a world-famous Mexican painter, and husband of
Frida Kahlo. Rivera's large wall works in fresco helped establish
the Mexican Mural Renaissance.
--Botero
was appointed professor for painting at the Bogotá Art
Academy and gradually became the most important young artist in
Colombia.
---
In 1960 Botero moved to New York and won the Guggenheim National
Prize for Colombia. In the sane year he split up with his wife.
--In
1965, Botero's fully developed plastic style of painting first
became visible in his painting "The Pinzón Family".
--In
1966 the painter travelled to his first important European exhibition
at the "Staat Liche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden", followed
by his first exhibition at a US Museum at the Milwaukee Art Center
in December, which lead to his breakthrough in America.
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--Fernando
Botero spent the following years in Colombia, New York and Europe.
--Since
the birth of his son Pedro, from his second marriage in 1970,
the artist captured all phases of his son's life in his Art.
--After
the four-year-old died in a car accident, Botero often returned
to the motif.
--In
1973 Botero moves to Paris, where he produced his first sculptures.
He only worked on sculptures for some time until he returned to
painting in 1978.
--Five
years later, Fernando Botero moves to Tuscany, where he only painted
bullfighting scenes for two years.
--These
painting a were shown at the Marlborough Gallery in New York in
1985.
--Today
Botero's works are exhibited in numerous international museums
and exhibitions.
--Fernando
Botero lives and works in New York and Paris through international
exhibitions along some of the most famous streets of the world's
largest cities, his paintings, drawings and monumental sculptures
have become so well known that they often complex meanings, in
many cases have become all but obscured.
--While
Botero's Art is tangibly present as an indispensable part of popular
visual culture in the Western imagination, its deeper references
and the processes of its creation have become camouflaged by both
its highly visible public profile by both its commercial appropriation.
--The
Art of Botero must be read on a variety of planes. The levels
of meaning unfold when scrutinized under the lens of both his
historical development and the intentions of the messages that
his paintings, drawings and sculptures convey.
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--Botero
got started on his first painting the day after arriving in New
York, and never let it up. He found a studio in the heart of Greenwich
Village, and intended to sell his paintings himself.
--Then
a dealer came along who was interested in his drawings and offered
to buy up a series of them at ten dollars a piece.
--Slowly,
Botero began making his first earnings.
--Notwithstanding
the lack of interest in his work shown by most of the New York
galleries.
--Botero
staunchly refused to passively submit to the edicts of american
Art, an Art ruled by Abstract Expressionism. He was determined
to remain faithfull to his South American inspiration, to his
personal quest and artistic conceptions.
--"After
being colonized for centuries, Latin American artists are particularly
sensitive to the need to find their personal authenticity"
he declared in one interview. "I want my painting to have
roots, for it is roots that give meaning, truth to what one creates".
--Actually,
his first shows were torn to pieces by the american critics. He
was deeply wounded by the virulence of their criticism, by their
brutality, their unconditional rejection of his painting, qualified
as vaguely folkloric, Baroque rubish.
--These
then were difficult times for Botero, marked by self-doubt and
uncertainty.
--During
this period, he also got caught up in family problems. In any
case, he became separated from his wife, Gloria Zea, whom he had
married in 1955 and who had borne him three children.
--A
modest, even secretive man, Botero is loathe to discuss his private
life with biographers.
--One
thing we do know is that many years later, after he remarried
the artist Sophia Vari he would be forced to confront the deepest
of pains.
--The
death of his four-year-old son, Pedro, killed at his side in a
car accident along the coast of Spain.
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--Battling
the hostile climate of New York, he refused to give up. He continued
to fight, painting away furiously and accumulating a stock of
finished works.
--In
the meantime, he transferred his studio to a Lower East Side apartment,
unbearable in the summer heat.
--Here
emerged a series of smooth-skinned, giant creations, their bodies
in full bloom but never obese, breathing serenity and self-assurance
... strange musicians right out of a circus parade, archbishops,
generals ...
--Here
also were created the still lifes in their bright, warm colours,
beautifully composed arrangements of familiar objects, things
that are good to eat - for there is a noteworthy gustatory sensualism
to Botero's work - lots of fruits, oranges and especially bananas,
the authentic fruits of the tropics, as Botero himself later commented,
"never apples, apples are for snobs".
--There
followed long years of hard work, years during which his ideas
were constantly called into question, when he sought to personalize
various influences, to absorb sundry technical experiences, to
search in many directions.
--But
he never failed to steer a steady course, following the direction
dictated by what, he felt certain, was an inner universe in the
process of blooming.
--A
small group of collectors, american art lovers, began following
him. The same thing was happening abroad, in France, England,
and, most especially, in Germany, where his poetic and mythical
work, free of all formalism, attracted a growing number of followers.
--Botero
learned to refine his palette, to seek greater simplicity and
mastery intellectually and technically.
--From
1963 he began eliminating all traces of texture on the canvas
in favour of painting that was totally smooth.
--He
also perfected his aesthetic concept of a painting as something
always born of the imagery and fuelled by hundreds of sources.
--Within
two years he had attained perfect mastery of his Art, knew exactly
what he wanted to say, and how.
--The
New York galleries finally became interested in his work. At the
same time - "The President and the First Lady", for
instance - landed in New York's Museum of Modern Art, and retrospectives
of his work were put on by various German museums.
--Henceforth,
he would be able to make an honourable living of his passion,
bringing him more than just material satisfaction.
--The
first solo show of his works put on by New York's Marlborough
Gallery, was somewhat of an event.
--Botero
would remain in New York for thirteen years, travelling frequently
to Colombia and Europe, always at the heart of painting, with
stopovers in his beloved Italy, in France and Germany.
--He
translated Manet's "Déjeuner sur l'herbe", in
his own manner, and fell in love with Dürer's work, which
led him to create a series of charcoals - The Dürerboteros
- inspired by the Nuremburg Master's portraits.
--In
the fashion of Picasso, upon various occasions he destructured
and restructured
--"Las
Meninas" ( Velázquez).
--He
thus penetrated from within, the work of a painter he admired,
inspiring a long series in 1977.
--"Marguerite",
based on Velázquez portraits of the little Infanta Margareta
Teresa and her retinue of Ladies and dwarfs.
--An
act of appropriation that was also an act of love. |
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