Colombia
* April 19, 1932 Medellín
† September 15, 2023 Monaco
Fernando Botero found his own, now world-famous style very early on. All of his figures – people and animals – are sensually round or simply fat, but also have features of normal or even smaller proportions. The artist doesn’t care who the people are; he also depicts dancers and toreros, for example, who one would associate with thin figures, with exaggerated, oversized body proportions.
His animals – cats, horses, birds and many others – also have oversized, round shapes. He even draws his variation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa with a spherical face.
Botero, who called himself “the most Colombian of all Colombian painters,” represented the image of Latin American cultures in his art like no other by visualizing modern life in Latin America. His approximately 3,000 paintings and 300 sculptures can be seen in museums and on public spaces in 60 cities around the world.
