英语名人堂：费尔南多·博特罗（在线收听）

年幼时期，曾拜师学习斗牛，立志成为一名斗牛士。16岁时，发现绘画能够反映人类更强的搏斗精神，而后投身绘画事业。初期在麦德林画院学习，后到首都波哥大投奔名门大师。1952年只身赴欧洲学习西欧绘画技巧，曾在圣费尔南多画院接受名师指导，并于1955年在意大利研修西方绘画。1961年，在美国纽约举办第一次个人画展，获得巨大反响。自1965年后，博特罗绘画日臻成熟，并自成一派，被人们誉“博特罗塑料艺术风格”。1966年，他在欧洲举办首次画展，最为著名的“平松一家”获得高度评价，自此，博特罗绘画作品及风格得到世界公认。自1978年，他开始在世界各地举办巡回展，主要国家有：挪威、瑞典、美国、意大利、波多黎各、日本、西班牙、墨西哥、德国和法国。

Fernando Botero was born in 1932 in Medellin, Colombia. He paints in the neo-figurative style and calls himself "the most Colombian of Colombian artists". He largely paints large people – figures that are much larger than life in all parts of their body. His critics often call them “fat people”. Botero doesn’t know the reason why he paints such obese forms.

Botero grew up looking at paintings in his local Catholic church. These were in the centuries-old Baroque style and influenced his style. He was never rich enough to visit galleries and see other works. He held his first exhibition when he was 20, in the capital Bogota. He used the money he received to go to Europe to study art.

Throughout the 1960s he lived in New York. He found a new inspiration in the Italian Renaissance. He began to experiment with creating volume in his figures by expanding them and compressing the space around them. This became his unique and trademark style. In 1997, Colombian terrorists destroyed his sculpture ‘Bird’ in Medellin. Seventeen people died in the attack.

Botero’s works now hang in galleries all over the world. He is guaranteed millions of dollars for each painting he does. His works instantly become collector’s items and many people buy them as investments. In 2005, Botero painted a series of 50 paintings that graphically showed the horror of the events in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. This is typical of Botero using art for social commentary.