Fernando Botero, one of Latin America’s most celebrated artists, has died. According to his daughter, Lina Botero, the 91-year-old Colombian artist was suffering from complications from pneumonia and died at his home in Monaco.
“Fernando Botero, the painter of our traditions and defects, the painter of our virtues, has died,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on social media.
Fernando Botero Angulo (19 April 1932 – 15 September 2023) was a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor from Medellín. His signature style, also known as “Boterismo”, depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or humor, depending on the piece. He was considered the most recognized and quoted artist from Latin America in his lifetime, and his art can be found in highly visible places around the world, such as Park Avenue in New York City and the Champs-Élysées in Paris, at different times.
In 1960, the artist moved to New York where he experimented with the gestural brushstrokes of the New York School painters of the time. This stylistic dalliance was short lived and by the 1970s Botero had settled into the technique for which he is now known. The artist currently lives and works between Paris, France, New York, NY, and Tuscany, Italy. His works are presently held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museo Botero in Bogotá which is dedicated to the artist and his oeuvre
Botero loved his work – until the end. His hometown of Medellín once tore down an entire block of houses for him. Otherwise there would have been no space for the 23 bronze figures weighing tons, which unmistakably bear the signature of the great master: a voluminous woman, lounging on a pedestal, a fat man on a fat horse and then there is a cat, also extremely large, crouching wide, thick paws.
Botero
My first contact with Botero was through my good friend from Colombia Jorge Otero, who introduced me to his work one day when we were walking around Jing’An Temple in Shanghai, back in 2005.
R.I.P. Fernando Botero
Sources
- Fernando Botero, Colombian artist famous for rotund and oversize figures, dies at 91 (NPR)
- Fernando Botero (Wikipedia)
- Fernando Botero – the master of volume is dead (Taggesschau)
- Fernando Botero (ArtNet)
- Fernando Botero, Artist of Whimsical Rotundity, Is Dead at 91 (New York Times)
