Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero is a Columbian artist, world-famous for his figurative paintings, drawings and sculptures. Early in his life, Botero was sent to learn at a matador school from 1944 to 1946. He quit to pursue art and started to consume and emulate Latin American masters such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco, before moving to Europe and studying Renaissance masters such as Giotto and Uccello, as well as Velázquez. He moved to New York in 1960 and his paintings showed the influence of the ‘old-world’ and New York abstract expressionism. By the mid to late 1960s, Botero has landed at his signature style, portraying people or animals in very large exaggerated proportions, due to his interest in depicting volume and perspective and his caricature of the Old Masters. This style is today referred to as “Boterismo,” it is often humorous in nature or politically critical. In 1973 Botero moved from New York to Paris and began making sculptures, which have been placed prominently around the world. His works are in internationally leading museums, including the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Museo Botero in Bogotá, dedicated exclusively to his oeuvre.