Fernando Botero, one of Latin America's most celebrated artists, has died. According to his daughter, Lina Botero, the 91-year-old Colombian artist was suffering from complications from pneumonia and died at his home in Monaco.
"Fernando Botero, the painter of our traditions and defects, the painter of our virtues, has died," Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on social media.
In his paintings and sculptures, Botero often depicted rotund, whimsical figures that poked fun at the upper class of his native Colombia.
Medellín, he was the son of a traveling salesman and a seamstress and once harbored a desire to be a matador.
Botero depicted politicians, animals, saints, and scenes from his childhood in an inflated and colorful form that was instantly recognizable. During his lifetime the artist attained global fame and influence, despite his humble origins, and his paintings were exhibited in museums globally, while his imposing bronze sculptures can be found in the parks and avenues of many European and Latin American capitals.
“His success was truly immense” Botero’s son Juan Carlos, wrote in a biography of his father, published in 2010. “Fernando Botero has created a unique style, that is original and easy to recognize.”
Velázquez inserted himself into some of his paintings.
Dancing in Colombia (1980), a painting now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is even less fraught. It represents two people swinging beneath a band that dispassionately plays above them. Cigarettes are strewn about on the floor, in the only evidence that the festivities are ongoing.
He also painted victims of U.S. abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "These works are the result of the indignation that the violations in Iraq produced in me and the rest of the world," he said.
His works were hugely popular, sometimes selling for millions of dollars, and adorned major museums as well as the Champs-Élysées in Paris and Park Avenue in New York, as well as his home town of Medellín and the capital Bogotá, where the Botero Museum resides.
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