Fernando BOTERO

Fernando Botero (1932-2023)

Fernando Botero Angulo was a Colombian painter and sculptor who was born in Medellín on 19 April 1932 and died in Monaco on 15 September 2023.

He was a world-famous artist and gained a unique place in the art world thanks to his inimitable style, known as "Boteroism", characterised by rounded, exaggerated and full forms, often charged with poetry, irony or criticism.

Botero developed a passion for art at an early age and began exhibiting his work in Medellín at the age of 16. After studying at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, he immersed himself in the great European masters such as Velázquez, Goya and Titian.

But it was in developing a daring, personal style that he made his mark, a world in which everything seems inflated, monumental but never static.

In the 1950s he became a rising star in Colombia. He gained recognition after winning first prize at the Salon of Colombian Artists in 1958.

His career took on an international dimension in the 1960s, thanks mainly to the support of Dorothy Miller, curator of the MoMA in New York, who bought several of his works. From then on, his name circulated among the world's major art institutions.

From the 1970s, he divided his time between Paris, Tuscany and Monaco. He also concentrated on monumental sculptures, exhibited in the main squares of cities such as Paris, New York and Florence.

Botero's work explores many themes:

- Latin America: he paints daily life, traditions, politics and the excesses of Colombian society with tenderness and humour.

- Religion: often present in the form of biblical scenes or corpulent clergymen, it is treated with a touch of irony, but also with symbolic depth.

- Still life: Fruit, objects and musical instruments take on full, generous, almost human forms.

- Portraits: whether anonymous, historical or political, Botero imposes his idiosyncratic vision on the body.

- Scenes of violence: in his series on violence in Colombia and torture in Abu Ghraib prison, he does not hesitate to use his style to denounce the abuse of power.

In 2000, Botero made an extraordinary gift to his country: more than 200 works (his own as well as works by great artists such as Picasso and Renoir), which enabled the creation of the Botero Museum in Bogotá.

Fernando Botero is considered "the most Colombian of all Colombian artists".

His universal style, at once accessible and profound, critical and affectionate, has left a strong mark on modern art.

His work continues to fascinate present and future generations, both for its form and the richness of its messages.