Fernando Botero Angulo (born 1932) is a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor. His signature style is known as “Boterismo,” which depicts figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or humor, depending on the piece.
He is one of the most recognized artists from Latin America, and his art can be found in popular public places all around the world. In the last three decades, he has mostly worked out of Paris.
He has achieved recognition for his paintings, drawings, and sculpture, with exhibitions across the world.
Botero’s work has concentrated on situational portraiture. His paintings and sculptures are united by their proportionally exaggerated, or “fat” figures, as he once referred to them. Botero explains his use of these “large people,” in the following way:
“An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why.
You adopt a position intuitively;
only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it.”
Botero is an abstract artist choosing colors, shapes, and proportions based on his intuitive aesthetic style.
Explore Fernando Botero’s Sculptures
“Woman with Fruit” by Fernando Botero, Bamberg, Germany
“Woman with Fruit,” sculpture by Fernando Botero, is at Bamberg on the Heumarkt, where she is lying on her front, eating a fruit. The statue represents a full figure of a naked woman.
She was first exhibited in 1998 as part of an exhibition of 15 sculptures by Botero. Enough citizens were captivated with this art that they collected enough funds to purchase this piece and gave it a permanent home. She has now become a significant tourist attraction for the town.
Bamberg is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. A large part of the town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.
The sculpture sits on a pedestal and is part of the sculpture trail in the city.
“Cat” by Fernando Botero, Rambla del Raval, Barcelona
“Cat” by Fernando Botero, Rambla del Raval, Barcelona
“Cat” sculpture by Fernando Botero, known in Spanish as Gato, arrived in Barcelona in 1987. This bronze sculpture represents a large, chubby cat, and is today a popular local and tourist attraction of Barcelona.
Children and adults try to climb it, playing around it, and many take photos next to it. El Gato lives today at Rambla del Raval.
Botero sculptures represent elements of everyday life but with excessive proportions. The cat, big and fat, made of bronze, has a childish face and long tail.
“Bird” by Fernando Botero, UOB Plaza, Singapore
“Bird” by Fernando Botero, UOB Plaza, Singapore
Bird by Fernando Botero in Singapore is a large, squat, bronze Bird sculpture at UOB Plaza near Raffles Place, along the Singapore River. It was installed in 1990 and represents the joy of living and the power of optimism.
Singapore has several Botero sculptures, including the Dancing Nude Couple and the Reclining Woman at the St Regis Hotel.
“Woman Smoking a Cigarette” by Fernando Botero, Alexander Tamanyan Park, Yerevan, Armenia
“Woman Smoking a Cigarette” by Fernando Botero, Alexander Tamanyan Park, Yerevan, Armenia
“Woman Smoking a Cigarette” (1987) by Fernando Botero’s famous sculpture is in Alexander Tamanyan Park at the foot of the Cascade in Yerevan, Armenia.
Its location in the park in front of the Yerevan Cascade stairs, which enables maximum exposure.
“Roman Warrior statue” by Fernando Botero, Yerevan, Armenia
“Roman Warrior statue” by Fernando Botero, Yerevan, Armenia.
“Roman Warrior statue” by Fernando Botero is located at The Cascade (Armenian: Կասկադ, Kaskad), a giant stairway made of limestone in Yerevan, Armenia. It links the downtown Ketron area of Yerevan with the Monument neighborhood.
The exterior of The Cascade features multiple levels adorned with fountains and modernist sculptures. The stairs afford walkers’ unobstructed views of central Yerevan and Mount Ararat. At the base of the Cascade is a garden courtyard with statues by contemporary sculptors such as Botero.
“Man on Horse” by Fernando Botero, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
“Man on Horse” by Fernando Botero, Jerusalem, Israel
‘Man on Horse,’ by Fernando Botero, is a 1992 bronze sculpture of a man on a horse at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
A Tour of Artists and their Art
- Duccio (1255 – 1319)
- Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510)
- Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448 – 1494)
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
- Albrecht Durer (1471 – 1528)
- Michelangelo (1475 – 1564)
- Raphael (1483 – 1520)
- Titian (1488 – 1576)
- Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 – 1569)
- Paolo Veronese (1528 – 1588)
- El Greco (1541 – 1614)
- Caravaggio (1571 – 1610)
- Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640)
- Georges de La Tour (1593 – 1652)
- Anthony van Dyck (1599 – 1641)
- Nicolas Poussin (1594 – 1665)
- Diego Velázquez (1599 – 1660)
- Rembrandt (1606 – 1669)
- Pieter de Hooch (1629 – 1684)
- Johannes Vermeer (1632 – 1675)
- Élisabeth Sophie Chéron (1648 – 1711)
- Canaletto (1697 – 1768)
- François Boucher (1703 – 1770)
- Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732 – 1806)
- Francisco Goya (1746 – 1828)
- Jacques-Louis David (1748 – 1825)
- Caspar David Friedrich (1774 – 1840)
- J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851)
- Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780 – 1867)
- Eugène Delacroix (1798 – 1863)
- Rosa Bonheur (1822 – 1899)
- Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824 – 1904)
- John Everett Millais (1829 – 1896)
- Frederic Leighton (1830 – 1896)
- Édouard Manet (1832 – 1883)
- Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917)
- Winslow Homer (1836 – 1910)
- Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906)
- Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917)
- Claude Monet (1840 – 1926)
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 – 1919)
- Berthe Morisot (1841 – 1895)
- Henri Rousseau (1844 – 1910)
- Mary Cassatt (1844 – 1926)
- Elizabeth Thompson (1846 – 1933)
- Gustave Caillebotte (1848 – 1894)
- John William Waterhouse (1849 – 1917)
- Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890)
- Frederick McCubbin (1855 – 1917)
- John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925)
- Tom Roberts (1856 – 1931)
- Lovis Corinth (1858 – 1925)
- Georges Seurat (1859 – 1891)
- Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918)
- Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944)
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 – 1901)
- Rupert Bunny (1864 – 1947)
- Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944)
- Arthur Streeton (1867 – 1943)
- Franz Marc (1880 – 1916)
- Goyō Hashiguchi (1880 – 1921)
- Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967)
- Amedeo Modigliani (1884 – 1920)
- Artists and their Art
Fernando Botero Quotes
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“Art is a spiritual, immaterial respite from the hardships of life.”
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“I’m a tireless worker. I don’t consider painting work. It is not an obligation. I do it for pleasure; I haven’t found anything that amuses me more than painting.”
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‘”A painted landscape is always more beautiful than a real one because there’s more there. Everything is more sensual, and one takes refuge in its beauty.”
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“Sculptures permit me to create real volume One can touch the forms, one can give them smoothness, the sensuality that one wants.”
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“When you start a painting, it is somewhat outside of you. At the conclusion, you seem to move inside the painting.”
~~~
“Man needs music, literature, and painting – all those oases of perfection that make up art – to compensate for the rudeness and materialism of life.”
~~~
“An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it.”
~~~
“In art, as long as you have ideas and think, you are bound to deform nature. Art is deformation.”
~~~
“I work more now, perhaps because I know that there is so little time left.”
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“I often think about death, and it saddens me to leave this world and not be able to paint more. I love it so much.”
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“I describe in a realistic form a nonrealistic Reality.”
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“Man needs spiritual expression and nourishing… even in the prehistoric era, people would scrawl pictures of bison on the walls of caves.”
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“I create my subjects somehow, visualizing them in my style.”
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“I start as a poet, put the colors and composition down on the canvas as a painter, but finish my work as a sculptor taking delight in caressing the forms.”
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“The richness of an artist is the fusion of influences that have shaped his life and work.”
~~~
“A painted landscape is always more beautiful than a real one because there’s more there. Everything is more sensual, and one takes refuge in its beauty.”
~~~
“And man needs spiritual expression and nourishing. It’s why even in the prehistoric era, people would scrawl pictures of bison on the walls of caves.”
~~~
“Man needs music, literature, and painting-all those oases of perfection that makeup art-to compensate for the rudeness and materialism of life.”
~~~
Fernando Botero: A collection of 268 works
Botero’s Art | Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero Sculptures
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“The richness of an artist is the fusion of influences that have shaped his life and work.”
– Fernando Botero
~~~
Photo Credit: 1) JoachimKohlerBremen [CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)] 2) JoachimKohlerBremen [CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)] 3) Camille Hardy [CC BY-SA 3.0 es (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/es/deed.en)] 4) Fernando Botero [CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]; 5) David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada [CC BY 2.0 (reativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)] 6) Shaun Dunphy from Lindfield, United Kingdom [CC BY-SA 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)] 7)Fernando Botero [Public domain] 8); David Reshef Pikiwiki Israel / CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)
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