Iconic Colombian artist Fernando Botero passes away at 91
Botero, whose sculptures and paintings of playful, rotund subjects in sometimes harrowing situations made him one of the world's richest artists, has died at 91.
Heralded as South America's answer to Picasso, Botero also tackled violence and political topics, including Colombia's internal conflicts, as well as portraying daily life.
His works have featured in exhibitions across the world. His canvases and sculptures sell for more than $2 million each, according to Sotheby's.
The artist's bodacious subjects were portrayed in everyday situations — a corpulent naked woman lounging on a bed or a stout man riding a humorously out-sized horse — but served the artist's more serious goal of transporting the reader to what he called a «superlative dimension», where commonplace situations took on exaggerated proportions.
Despite the comic plumpness of many of his creations, the artist never shied away from serious subject matter — his series of paintings about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal generated discussion across the art world.
«Fernando Botero has died, the painter of our traditions and defects, the painter of our virtues.
The painter of our violence and of peace,» Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.
Although widely known for his large subjects, Botero insisted his pieces were not focused on body type.
«I don't paint fat women,» the artist told Spain's El Mundo newspaper in 2014, «no one believes me, but it's true. What I do paint are volumes.»
Botero's work sometimes focused on Colombia's long-running internal conflict — he painted the aftermath of a car bomb and a group of party-goers menaced by men wielding automatic weapons and bloody machetes.
He also created
