User:Latinchica/Fernando Botero

Early life
Fernando Botero was born in Medellín on 19 April 1932. His father, David Botero, a salesman who traveled by horseback, died when Fernando was four. His mother, Flora Angulo , worked as a seamstress to support the family. An uncle took a major role in his life. Although isolated from art as presented in museums and other cultural institutes, Botero was influenced by the Baroque style of the colonial churches and the city life of Medellín while growing up.

Botero received his primary education at the Ateneo Antioqueño and, thanks to a scholarship, he continued his secondary education at the Jesuit School of Bolívar. In 1944, when he was 12 years old, Botero's uncle sent him to a school for matadors for two years. '''Some of his earlier drawings were inspired by the bullfight scene. He sold his first painting for $2, thanks to a merchant who allowed him to display it in the window of his shop. He spoke with the Los Angeles Times, during an interview in November of 2000, and explained that he lost the money he got for the painting and thus, his brothers never believed him. His love of drawing nudes caused problems with his roman catholic education. He was expelled from school after defending Pablo Picasso’s art in an essay'''.

In 1948, Botero at the age of 16 had his first illustrations published in the Sunday supplement of El Colombiano, one of the most important newspapers in Medellín. He used the money he was paid to attend high school at the Liceo de Marinilla de Antioquia.


 *  Notes: Added his parent's names. Remove " of a heart attack" as the reason his father died. Added the name of all his kids and edited the number from 3 to 4, added the year his fourth son died and included a citation. Added the name of his seconf wife and the dates of their relationship, and change Dead for Died next to his third wife's name 

Career
In 1952, using his gallery earnings, Botero sailed to Europe. He arrived in Barcelona and then moved on to Madrid. In Madrid, Botero studied at the Academia de San Fernando and was a frequent visitor to the Prado Museum, where he copied works by Goya and Velázquez. He sold his copies on the streets to make money.

Style
'Botero’s work, Still Life with Mandolin'', marked the beginning of his stylistic development in painting enlarged figures. It became his trademark. During a November 2000 interview, he said about it:"I was drawing a mandolin, and I made the sound hole very small, which made the mandolin look gigantic. I saw that making the details small made the form monumental. So, in my figures, the eyes, the mouth are all small and the exterior form is huge."During 1956 – 1958, Botero had exhibitions in both Washington D.C. and Mexico City. Despite selling almost all of his paintings, he didn't gain favor of critics. His reputation improved after the New York Museum of Modern Art obtained his painting, Mona Lisa, Age Twelve, in 1961. '''

Personal life
Botero was married twice. With his first wife, Gloria Zea [es] (1935–2019), later director of the Colombian Institute of Culture (Colcultura); they had three children: Fernando, Lina, and Juan Carlos. They divorced in 1960 and, the following year, Botero moved to New York City, where he lived for a dozen years before settling in Paris.

In 1964, Botero began living with Cecilia Zambrano. They had a son, Pedro, who was killed in 1974 in a car accident '''when they were vacationing in Spain. While traveling between Sevilla and Cordoba, a truck lost control and crashed into their car. Pedro was 4 years old. Botero survived, but he lost the phalanx of the right little finger. Botero's work, Pedrito a Caballo, was inspired by his late son and was painted in the months following the accident. ''' Botero and Zambrano separated in 1975.

'''His home city, Medellin, is also known for being the home of Pablo Escobar, Colombia’s most famous drug lord. After the death of Escobar, Botero found out that two of his paintings were in Escobar possession, and this angered him. Botero painted the death of Escobar on his paintings, The Death of Pablo Escobar, and Pablo Escobar Dead. Unfortunately, the violence in the city didn’t end after the drug lord’s death. Botero was kidnapped while in the city in 1994, and in 1995, one of his statues, The Bird of Peace, was blowned up in a bomb attack.  Botero's second wife was the Greek artist Sophia Vari with whom he resided in Paris and Monte Carlo until she died on May 5, 2023'''. The couple also had a house in Pietrasanta, Italy. Botero's 80th birthday was commemorated with an exhibition of his works at Pietrasanta.

Botero died from complications of pneumonia on 15 September 2023, at age 91, in Monaco.


 * Notes: Added Pedro's name, removed the year he was born (it was incorrect), and changed 1979 to 1974. Added what caused the accident and the injury Botero sustained.