Medellín (Colombia), 1932

By Francisco Alambert

Fernando Botero, the most well-known Colombian painter of the 20th century, is known for his distinctive representation of obese or rounded human figures, often incorporating ironic, parodic, and nostalgic references to art history and social and political life. He is regarded by many as a representative of Latin American magical realism, frequently depicting scenes with nuns, priests, soldiers, brothels, and village life—a world both familiar and nostalgically portrayed. Botero began as an illustrator for the literary supplement of the newspaper El Colombiano in Medellín and held his first solo exhibition in Bogotá in 1951. In the 1950s, he studied at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid and the Academia de San Marco in Florence, during which he immersed himself in the works of Goya, Velázquez, and Florentine masters.

During his time in Mexico from 1956 to 1957, Botero was influenced by the muralist movement. From this point on, his extensive output was marked by a deliberate aversion to contemporary art, favoring classical painting and popular art with pre-Columbian roots, linked to a colonial-era imagination and distanced from celebrated “isms.” His style, uniquely provincial, nonetheless achieved global reach. In 1959, he participated in the V São Paulo Biennial, and two years later he moved to New York, where he worked for twelve years before relocating to Paris. In 1977, he exhibited his sculptures for the first time at the Grand Palais in Paris. In 1979, a major exhibition of his work was held at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. Since then, dozens of exhibitions have been held worldwide, including displays of his sculptures along the Champs-Élysées in Paris (1992), Fifth Avenue in New York (1993), and at the Luis Ángel Arango Library in Bogotá (1993).