“Fernando Botero, the painter of our traditions and defects, the painter of our virtues, has died,” the Colombian president posted on social media on Friday, without providing details on the cause of death.
His daughter, Lina Botero, told Colombian radio station Caracol that her father died in Monaco on Friday morning of pneumonia complications.
Botero’s works of plump and slightly Surreal forms became enormously popular during his lifetime, on display in museums and public spaces in cities around the world, including Bogota, Madrid, Paris, Singapore and Venice.
Heralded as South America’s answer to Picasso and unanimously remembered in Colombian media outlets on Friday as “the greatest Colombian artist of all time”, Botero also tackled violence and political topics, including Colombia's internal conflict, as well as portraying daily life.
Born in Medellin in 1932, his signature style was known as “Boterismo” and he is considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.
“I am interested in volume, the sensuality of the form. If I paint a woman, a man, a dog or a horse, I do it with volume.”
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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