Fernando Botero
“I describe in a realistic form a nonrealistic Reality.”
Fernando Botero (1932-2023) was one of the most important Latin American artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Born in Medellín, Colombia in 1932, the artist developed a style that is immediately recognized and celebrated in every corner of the planet. As a teenager, he left matador school to become an artist and held his first exhibition in Colombia in 1948. (Read More)
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Botero spent his youth investigating form and traveling around the world to research master artists. His European travels began in Madrid, Spain, where he studied at the Academia de San Fernando. Throughout the 1950s, Botero experimented with proportion and size. He began developing his trademark style characterized by exaggerated volumes and proportions after he moved to New York City in 1960. After reaching an international audience with his art, Botero moved to Paris in 1973, where he began creating sculptures. These works extended the foundational themes of his painting. By the 1990s, outdoor exhibitions of huge bronze figures were staged around the world to great success.
He maintained consistency and coherence throughout his career in the exploration of color and volume while depicting scenes from Colombia and Latin America. His signature style, now known as “Boterismo,” gives objects and characters in his work a distinctive identity. Botero depicted daily life, historical events and characters, references to art history, still life, animals, and the natural world in general, with exaggerated and disproportionate volumetric proportions, accompanied by fine details of satiric criticism, irony, humor, and ingenuity.
Based in various European cities throughout his life, Botero achieved international acclaim with major exhibitions seen worldwide. His art is often collected by illustrious museums, corporations, and private collectors.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Important Exhibitions
2018 Celebrating 90 Years of Botero, Art of the World Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
2017 Botero in Rome, Complesso Vittoriano, Rome, Italy
2016 Botero in China, China Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2016 Fernando Botero: Abstract Realism in Luminous Volume, Art of the World Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
2012 Botero Celebration, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain – Una Celebración, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, México
2011 Fernando Botero’s paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary
2010 Contemporary Art, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
2009–10 Abu Ghraib, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum Berkeley, California, USA
2008–10 The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey; Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado; New Orleans Museum of Art, NOMA, Louisiana; Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, USA
2006 Fernando Botero, Athens Concert Hall, Athens, Greece
2003 Fernando Botero – The Last 15 Years, Palazzo Venezia, Rome, Italy
2002 Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
2000 Botero a Piazza Signoria, Florence, Italy
The Museum of Antioquía, Medellín, Colombia
1996 Monumental Bronzes, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington DC, USA
1994 The National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1993 Botero in New York, Park Avenue, New York, USA
1992–93 Kunsthaus Vienna, Austria; The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
1992 Botero aux Champs-Élysées: Sculptures Monumentales; Paris, France
1989 The Rufino Tamayo Museum, Oaxaca, México
1981 The Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
1979–80 A Retrospective Exhibition, The South Texas Museum of Art, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
1964 Fernando Botero: Obras Recientes, Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá, Colombia
Permanent Collections
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes; Santiago, Chile
Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá, Colombia
Museo Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia
Neue Pinakothek, Münich, Germany
Museo d´Arte Moderna del Vaticano; Vatican City, Italy
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyongju, South Korea
Museo de Bellas Artes; Caracas, Spain
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA