“Art should be an oasis: a place or refuge from the hardness of life.”
Fernando Botero, born in 1932 in Medellín, Colombia, became renowned for the varied source material he drew upon, from Colombian folk imagery to canonical works by Diego Velázquez, Pablo Picasso and Francisco de Goya.
Botero moved in 1960 to New York where he experimented briefly with a gestural brushstroke, which Botero called his flirtation with the School of New York. Over the next years Botero continued to explore the manipulation of form for aesthetic effect, gradually eliminating all traces of brushwork and texture, opting instead for smooth inflated shapes.In his deceptions of contemporary Latin American life, he portrays the poverty and violence prevalent in Colombia in somber images, as well as in his iconic inflated figures. His work consists of oil paintings, pastels and bronzes, featuring bulky and sizeable figures. Despite their size, the figures often seem to float. With aid of the size of certain elements in his work, Botero points out the importance of these subjects. He strives to give expression to pleasure and light-hearted subjects as well.
Botero came to national prominence when he won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1958 and has achieved international recognition for his paintings, drawings and sculpture, with exhibitions across the world. His art is collected by corporations, private collectors and major museums throughout the world, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Botero passed away in Monte Carlo in September of 2023, aged 91.