Botero, Fernando

Botero, Fernando (1932– ). Colombian painter and sculptor, born in Medellin. He studied in Madrid and Florence, has travelled extensively, and since the early 1970s has lived mainly in New York and Paris. His early work was influenced by various styles, including Abstract Expressionism, but in the late 1950s he evolved a highly distinctive style in which figures look like grossly inflated dolls; sometimes his paintings are sardonic comments on modern life, but he he has also made something of a speciality of parodies on the work of Old Masters. Botero has acquired an international reputation for such works, accompanied by huge prices in the saleroom. In the early 1970s he began making sculpture in a similar vein to his paintings, and he has made several public monuments in bronze, notably Broadgate Venus (Exchange Square, London, 1990). His work is well represented in the Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogotá.