Botero insisted he painted “volume” in his figures
Colombian artist Fernando Botero, who gained worldwide fame with his sculptures and paintings of corpulent figures, has died at the age of 91.
His works feature outsized people and animals. But Botero also tackled politics and other serious subjects.
President Gustavo Petro called him “the painter of our traditions and defects, the painter of our virtues”.
The artist, who lived in Monaco, was suffering from pneumonia, his daughter Lina said on Friday.
Local media hailed Botero as the greatest Colombian artist of all time. His hometown, Medellín, has declared a week of mourning.
The son of a travelling salesman, Botero was born in 1932. In his 20s he travelled to Europe, where he discovered classical art before moving to the US in 1960.
He said that in the late 1950s he discovered “a new dimension that was more voluminous, more monumental, more extravagant, more extreme”.
He exaggerated the size of his subjects, sometimes for comical effect or for parody.
One of the most famous examples is his version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa with a puffed-up face.
Botero said he found it impossible to depict dainty creatures.
He could take a thin needle as his subject, h
Sugiérenos un sitio web a:
CubaWebDirectory