Perhaps the most famous contemporary Latin American artist alive, Fernando Botero was born in Medellin in 1932. After a stint at a matador school, Botero decided art was his true calling and in 1948, aged 16, he had his first exhibition. In the early 1950s Botero travelled through Europe, studying art at Madrid's Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, followed by a spell in Paris spent absorbing the works of the Old Masters at the Louvre. He continued to Florence, where he studied the frescoes of the Italian Renaissance, discovering techniques from a bygone era. Today, he lives and works between New York, Paris and Tuscany.
Botero is best known for his distinctive style of smooth inflated shapes with unexpected shifts in scale which reflects the artist's constant search to give volume presence and reality. His oeuvre ranges in subject matter, including daily life in Colombia, art historical references like the Mona Lisa, and abuses of power- all unified his exaggeratedly rotund figures.
He has created monumental sculptures for public spaces in many major cities, including New York (Park Avenue), Paris (Champs-Élysées), Rome and Monte Carlo. His works are found in many important private and public collections, such as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.); Ho-am Museum (Seoul); Israel Museum (Jerusalem); Kunsthalle Nuremberg (Nuremberg); Museo d'Arte Moderna del Vaticano (Rome); Museum Moderne Kunst (Vienna); Neue Pinakothek (Munich); Staatgalerie Moderne Kunst (Munich); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Tel Aviv); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); The Museum of Modern Art (New York); and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York).
Fernando Botero, Circus Band, 2008
Oil on canvas
185 x 141 cm | 72.8 x 55.5 in
Fernando Botero, Still Life with Fruit Bowl, 1999
Oil on canvas
98 x 135 cm | 38.6 x 53.1 in
Fernando Botero, Donna seduta su cubo, 2006
Bronze
43 x 27 x 32 cm | 16.9 x 10.6 x 12.6 in
Fernando Botero, Man and Woman, 2022
Watercolour and pencil on paper
30,9 x 40,6 cm | 12.2 x 16 in
Fernando Botero, Circus People, 2008
Oil on canvas
132 x 109 cm | 52 x 42.9 in
Fernando Botero, Musicos, 2017
Oil on canvas
119 x 96 cm | 46.9 x 37.8 in
Fernando Botero, A Family, 2016
Oil on canvas
163,2 x 190,2 cm | 64.3 x 74.9 in
Fernando Botero, Dos Hermanas, 2018
Oil on canvas
129,2 x 100 cm | 50.9 x 39.4 in
Fernando Botero, Leda and the Swan, 2006
Bronze
71 x 127 x 52 cm | 28 x 50 x 20.5 in
Fernando Botero, Carnival, 2016
Oil on canvas
129 x 94 cm | 50.8 x 37 in
Fernando Botero, Carnival, 2016
Oil on canvas
100 x 72 cm | 39.4 x 28.3 in
Fernando Botero, Portrait of Picasso, 1998
Oil on canvas
187 x 128 cm | 73.6 x 50.4 in
Fernando Botero, Couple, 2002
Bronze
65 x 50 x 18 cm | 25.6 x 19.7 x 7.1 in