Fernando Botero

Infobox Artist
name = Fernando Botero

---

imagesize = 170px
caption =
birthname = Fernando Botero Angulo
died at age of =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1932|4|19|df=yes
location = Medellín, Antioquia
COL
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = Colombian
field = Painter, sculptor
training =
movement =
works =
patrons =
awards =

Fernando Botero Angulo (born April 19, 1932 in Medellín, Antioquia) is a Colombian neo-figurative artist, self-titled "the most Colombian of Colombian artists" early on, coming to prominence when he won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1959.

Style

Fact|date=September 2007. Whilst he lived in Dinard, Brittany, 1942, for example "Deux femmes courant sur la plage" (The Course). He strives in all his work to capture an essential part of himself and his subjects through color and form.

His work includes still-life and landscapes, but Botero tends to primarily focus on situational portraiture. His paintings and sculptures are, on first examination, noted for their exaggerated proportions and the corpulence of the human figures and animal figures.

The "fat people" is what they are often called by critics. Botero explains his use of obese figures and forms as such: "An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it."

He is a very, very abstract artist in the most fundamental sense of the word, choosing what colors, shapes, and proportions to use based on intuitive aesthetic thinking. This being said, his works are informed by a Colombian upbringing and social commentary is woven throughout his work.

Donation and controversy

In early 2001, Botero donated a series of 23 oil paintings and 27 drawings depicting different elements of the country's long lasting violence, created between 1999 and 2004, to the National Museum of Colombia, where they were first publicly displayed between May 4 and June 11. [http://www.museonacional.gov.co/botero04.html]

In early 2002, Botero revealed a series of 50 paintings that graphically represent the controversial Abu Ghraib incident, expressing the rage and shock that the incident provoked in the artist. The works were initially presented at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome, and later in Germany and Greece. In October 2006, they were displayed at the Marlborough Gallery in New York City, their first showing in the United States. They were exhibited at The Center for Latin American Studies at the University of California in Berkeley in the spring of 2001. [http://www.marlboroughgallery.com/artists/botero/artwork.html] The Abu Ghraib series was then presented in Washington, DC at the American University Museum until December 2007 and is currently showing in Monterrey, Mexico. Botero has stated that he does not plan to sell the paintings, but instead intends to donate them to museums as a reminder of the events depicted within.Botero also went to the university of Florida for his degree.

On May 28 2008 during the Delaware Art Museum exhibition of "The Baroque World of Fernando Botero," sportscaster Adam Schefter was briefly detained by museum security after he attempted to lick what he referred to as from Botero's still life [http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=4889 Feliz Cumpleanos] . Schefter was released after several hours.

=Quotes= ::"Fernando Botero Paintings and Drawings". Ed. Werner Spies. Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1992. Translated from German edition Fernando Botero: Bilder, Zeichnungen, Skulpturen. Interview was conducted by Peter Stepan on May 8, 1986, in Munich.

Exhibitions

*"Fund-Raiser Exhibition with Sonia Falcone at Calvin Charles Gallery [http://www.calvincharles.com/pdfs/Botero.pdf] (2003) in Scottsdale, Arizona.
*"Botero at Ebisu" (2004) in Tokyo.
*"Fernando Botero" (2006) in Athens.
*"The Baroque World of Fernando Botero" (2007) in Quebec City
*"Abu Ghraib Exhibit" (2007) in University of California, Berkeley
*"Botero: Abu Ghraib" (November 6 - December 30, 2007) in [http://www.american.edu/museum American University Museum] , Washington, DC
*"Botero Abu Ghraib" Exposicion (2008) Centro de las Artes I Monterrey, Mexico
*"The Baroque World of Fernando Botero" (May 2008) Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington
*"The Baroque World of Fernando Botero" (June 28 - September 21 2008) New Orleans Museum of Art

References

External links

* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9354298/Fernando-Botero Fernando Botero in Encyclopedia Britannica]
* [http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=248 Gallery of Botero's Artwork]

Abu Ghraib series

* [http://www.slate.com/id/2118306/ "Abu Ghraib Isn't Guernica"] , essay on Botero's Abu Ghraib series by Christopher Hitchens in Slate.com.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoleMx-sxqQ "A Permanent Accusation"] A short movie on the Abu Ghraib series by Fernando Botero.
* [http://art_at_thekatzen.typepad.com/art_thekatzen/2007/01/fernando_botero.html "Abu Ghraib: November 6 - December 30, 2007"] It has been announced by the Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C. that Botero's paintings will be exhibited there at the end of this year.
* [http://kulturindustrie.blogspot.com/2006/11/crucified-smurfs.html "Crucified Smurfs"] Mark Scroggins discusses Botero's series of canvases & drawings based on the reports of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib
* [http://www.clas.berkeley.edu:7001/ "Abu Ghraib: January 29 - March 25, 2007"] The first US institutional exhibition at UC Berkeley, with a webcast of a conversation between Fernando Botero and Robert Hass on the day of the opening.
* [http://www.marlboroughgallery.com/artists/botero/artwork.html"Abu Ghraib: October 18 - November 21, 2006"] The first US gallery exhibition at the Marlborough in New York.
* [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061127/danto "The Body in Pain"] this essay by Arthur Danto at The Nation about Botero's "Abu Ghraib" series, discusses what Danto refers to as "disturbatory art"
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110200652.html?sub=AR "Botero Sees the World's True Heavies at Abu Ghraib"] by Erica Jong at The Washington Post about Botero's "Abu Ghraib" series"
* [http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/farhat081007.html "Botero's Abu Ghraib Series and the American Consciousness"] by Maymanah Farhat at Monthly Review discusses Botero's "Abu Ghraib" series in the larger context of American art and politics
* [http://www.medellintraveler.com Medellín, Colombia Travel Guide ]

Video

* [http://www.documen.tv/asset/Botero.html Documentary 52': Fernando Botero, the rebel]