Фернандо Ботеро

Fernando Botero Angulo is the Colombian master of painting of the grotesque direction, the sculptor who calls himself "The most Colombian of the Colombian artists". On its picturesque cloths the kitsch, grotesque, naive primitivism, folklore color, the Italian Renaissance and colonial baroque harmoniously get on. The master became known after a gain of the first prize at the Exhibition of the Colombian artists in 1959.
F. Botero was born on April 19, 1932 in the city of Medellin (исп. Medellín; Colombia).
In 1948, being a 16-year-old teenager, it for the first time published the illustrations in the local newspaper "El Colombiano", and spent the received money for payment of training in Mariniyya-de-Antyokiya lyceum (исп. El liceo Mariniua de Antioquia).
In 1952 in Madrid the beginning artist was admitted to art school of San Fernando.
During the period from 1953 to 1954 Fernando studied in Academy of San Marco (ital. Accademia San Marco; Florence), where studied the equipment of a fresco and got acquainted with the Italian art of Renaissance.
The artist developed the characteristic style in the second half of the 1950th. Till 1955 it didn't open for itself(himself) the style, subsequently brought to the author the world glory yet. Puzana, become the painter's "highlight", appeared thanks to a case when once in work "A still life with a mandoline" the tool was represented exaggeratedly by big. Since that moment of F. Botero found the subject. He doesn't hide the addiction to heavy forms, obesity became for it beauty criterion, its creative credo.
Especially hypertrophied volume forms are shown at the master in naked female images, these massive figures with exaggeratedly powerful legs and hips cause the strongest emotions in the viewer: from hostility before admiration.
In 1958 he won the first prize with the work "By the Sea" on "Salon nacional de artistas" in Bogota.
Since 1973 he actively was engaged in a sculpture, realizing in it the same exaggeratedly the magnificent, humorously inflated images of people and animals. Ideal materials for heavy figures of Botero — bronze and marble. These peculiar sculptures decorate many cities of the world (Bogota, Medellin, Lisbon, Paris, etc.). In Washington and New York several personal exhibitions went over with unprecedented success. The picture "Mona Lisa in 12 Years" became the first cloth of the Colombian which was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art of New York.
Works of the Colombian artist – picturesque cloths, a sculpture and a graphics — are easily recognized, having seen works at least once, they can't be forgotten.
Works of art and Botero's sculptures are quoted in the world very highly, they are recognized as one of the most expensive in the world.
Already today the creative heritage of the master is incredibly high — nearly 3 thousand picturesque cloths, more than 200 sculptures, and also uncountable quantity of water colors and drawings ink.