It was established as the Pera Museum in 2005, after previously being a hotel. There are 5 exhibition floors to the museum and the Botero exhibit was featured on 3 of the 5 floors. Included in the exhibition was a video of Botero's life, made in honor of his 75th birthday, 3 years ago. Botero started painting and drawing at a yound age. He initially drew figures from the church, as they had the best costumes! The people portrayed in his work are rounded, to enable more space to paint - they are not fat! Series of his paintings in this exhibition include circus characters, matadores, and "after other artists". The painting used for the sign is "After Velasquez".Replicas of his paintings were mounted on the elevator doors on each floor. I have some pictures of them here. The matador in black is a self portrait. The exhibit continues until July 18th, in case anyone is in the neighborhood.
The Pera Museum also houses permanent collections of 17th to 20th century paintings of Istanbul made by foreign artists, Anatolian weights and measures and Kutahyu tiles and ceramics. I will make another post for weights and measures. More information about the museum is on their website http://en.peramuzesi.org.tr/
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