Fernando Botero: The Million Dollar Painter

by David Drake

Fernando Botero Photo credit: mitunja.net

Born in 1932, #FernandoBotero is a Colombian sculptor whose drawings and paintings show a
deliberate effort to reflect his subjects in form and color. Fernando is famous for creating oversized or
stuffed depictions of animals, people and other aspects of the natural world. He is an abstract, neofigurative artist who refers to himself as the most Colombian of all other Colombian artists. In 2007,
one of Boteros paintings done in 1979, The Musicians was sold for over US$2 million in a New York
auction. This confirmed his status as the most coveted Latin American artist. In 2010, his
painting Family Scene scoped a US$1.7 million during a Christies New York Latin American Auction.

Family | Photo credit: paintingandframe.com

The Musicians | Photo credit: askart.com

The Starting Point

Fernandos artistic star began shining in the international market in the 1980s. The years he spent in
the US, Mexico, Italy, Spain and France earned him global acceptance and recognition. The Colombian
born artist says he began drawing when he was a young boy, mostly to overcome boredom. However,
his passion for drawing, creativity and #painting drove him from Medellin, his home town, to #Bogota,
Colombias capital. When he was 20, he travelled to Spain where the works of great European artists
such as Titian, Velazquez and #Goya played a key role in developing his artistic career. In Europe, he
joined Madrids San Fernando School of Fine Arts, followed by San Marco Academy in Florence. These
schools offered the strong classical training reflected over and over in Fernandos oeuvre.

Bogota, the heart of the Andes, is the hometown of Fernando Botero, and the Museum Botero
showcasing his artworks | Photo credit: pixabay.com

Developing a trademark
Still Life with Mandolin was painted by Botero in 1956. This painting left an indelible mark on all his
art work from that point on. It was painted in Mexico where he had interacted with the outstanding
Mesoamerican civilization works reflected in imposing pyramids as well as the superb artistic works
delivered by Pre-Columbian art. In 1957, Botero made his maiden trip to the US for a presentation of
his work, and earned a fellowship. The trip to the US advanced his education and exposed him to
works by Mark Rothko, Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning of The New York School. He would return
to live in New York in 1960, a move that gave way for his work to be showcased in museums, galleries
and city collectors. All through the 1950s, Fernando played out with size and proportion. After moving
to New York, he started building his trademark style of bloated, round animals and human beings. His
inflated proportions of figures, including those in his 1967 painting, The Presidential Family, connote
an aspect of political satire displayed using bright, flat color with prominent form outlines. Though in

his artistic work Fernando features landscapes and still-lifes, he typically concentrates on his symbolic
situational portraiture.

Still Life with Mandolin, 1956 | Photo credit: mydailyartdisplay.files.wordpress.com

Flowers in red, 2006 | Photo credit: pinterest.com

Still Life with Fruits, 2003 | Photo credit: static.theculturetrip.com

Creating sculptures
Having reached international audiences through his #art, Fernando moved to #Paris in 1973. Once
there, he started developing sculptures. Focusing on bloated subjects, his work grew to the
foundational themes found in his paintings. His sculpture works grew and by the 1990s, he began
staging large bronze sculptures in outdoor exhibitions across the world with great success. His
nephew, Hector Botero, travelled with him, and helped organize exhibitions in Paris, Miami, New York
City and Chicago between 1990 and the year 2000. However, Fernando became overtly political in
2004. He developed and exhibited a series of paintings and drawings that focused on Colombias
violence that stemmed from drug cartel activities. In 2005, during the Iraq War, Fernando launched
the Abu Ghraib series, which took 14 months to prepare. It is based on the available information on
the exploitation of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison by American military forces. The series attracted
extensive attention when it was displayed in Europe for the first time.

Man on a Horse Photo credit: mydailyartdisplay.files.wordpress.com

Boteros Bird Sculpture at Boat Quay in Singapore | Photo credit: c1.staticflickr.com

Art with a musical language

There have been claims that Fernandos pictorials evoke musical language, since Boteros work also
has a Colombian background. This comes out clearly in the paintings which portray musicians, as
Dancing in Colombia. These pictures are full of movement and life which offer the artist a great
opportunity to propose distinct compositions where his frontal characters ironically play, sing, and
dance to a defined environment. Fernandos work is connected closely to his personal experiences in
leisure, love and music, with a touch of sentiment and humor.

Dancing in Colombia, 1980 | Photo credit: metmuseum.org

You paint what you know best; what you went through as a teenager and child. My world is the one I
got to know in Medellin, I never paint anything else other than that, he says.

David Drake is the Chairman of LDJ Capital, a multi-family office; Victoria Partners, a 300 family office
network based in London; LDJ Real Estate Group and Drake Hospitality Group; and The Soho Loft
Media Group with divisions Victoria Global Communications,Times Impact Publications, and The Soho
Loft Conferences. You can reach him at David@LDJCapital.com