Fernando Botero

Biography 1964 Awarded First Intercol prize, Museum of Modern Art Bogota 1960-70 Lived in New York 1956 Taught, School of Fine Arts - National University Bogota 1953-55 Studied fresco techniques and art history Florence 1952-53 Studied, San Fernando Academy Madrid 1932 Born Medellin, Colombia Exhibitions 1972 Marlborough Gallery New York 1972 Buchholz Munich 1972 Claude Bernard Paris 1969 Inflated Images, Museum of Modern Art New York 1964 Cordoba Bienale, Argentina 1962 7 Contemporary Painters, Museum of Modern Art Bogota 1957 Pan American Union Washington, D.C. 1955 Biblioteca Nacional Bogota 1951 Leo Matiz Gallery Bogota He has exhibited his sculptures in places such as Montecarlo and the Champs Elysees, receiving the honour of being the first non-French artist to exhibit his art there. His many exhibitions have been throughout the world in places like Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Unites States, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia. As a Colombian, Botero and his work showing a unique face of Colombia. Botero has a particular technique for making his paintings. He takes as base Renaissance and Baroque painting, as well as the colonial tradition of Latin America. He experiments with the volume of his creations, expanding its figures and compressing the space around them. Also, he is dedicated to emphasizing the great volume of his disproportioned forms of animals and people. Botero´s biography starts in Colombia and expands internationally. He was born in Medellin, Colombia in 1932. He first worked as a theatre set designer. Later, in 1951, he moved to Bogota, where he had his first individual exhibition at the Leo Matiz Gallery. In 1956, he taught at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Colombia and travelled to Mexico City to study the work of Rivera and Orozco. In 1957, he made his first trip to Washington with the purpose of carrying out an individual exhibition in the Panamerican Union. He had other exhibitions at important museums of the world such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1969, where he is considered a major painter. Since 1972, he has had individual exhibitions at the Marlborough Gallery in New York, the Bucholz Gallery in Munich, and the Gallery Bernard in Paris. On October 14th, 2000, a Project known as “Medellin Ciudad Botero” was launched. The objective was to peacefully construct a city from culture and education. For the project to be carried out, Botero made a donation that consisted of several of his works.