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Fernando Botero (born 1932) is a
Colombia|Colombian artist who by his own admission
is "the most Colombian of Colombian artists." He
strives in all his work to capture an essential
part of himself and his subjects through color and
form. His work includes still-life and landscapes,
but Botero tends to primarily focus on situational
portraiture. His paintings and sculptures are, on
first examination, noted for their exaggerated
proportions and the corpulence of the human
figures and animal figures. The "fat people" are
often thought by critics to satire|satirize the
subjects and situations that Botero chooses to
paint. Botero explains his use of obese figures
and forms as such: "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." He is
an abstract artist in the most fundamental sense
of the word, choosing what colors, shapes, and
proportions to use based on intuitive aesthetic
thinking. This being said, his works are informed
by a Colombian upbringing and social commentary is
woven all throughout his work.

Botero was born in MedellĂ­n, whose Catholic
churches still maintained the Baroque style. His
upbringing was marked by isolation from the
traditional art venues such as museums and other
culture|cultural infrastructures. His Colombian
heritage thusly informs his art.

In early 2004, Botero donated a series of 23 oil
paintings and 27 drawings depicting different
elements of the country's longlasting violence,
created between 1999 and 2004, to the National
Museum of Colombia, which were first publicly
displayed between May 4 and June 11.
http://www.museonacional.gov.co/botero04.html

In early 2005, Botero revealed a series of 50
paintings that graphically represent the
controversial Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner
abuse scandal, expressing the rage and shock that
the incident provoked in the artist. The works 
will be initially presented in expositions
throughout Europe. Botero doesn't plan to sell the
paintings, but instead intends to donate them to
museums as a reminder of the events depicted
within.
http://www.observador.com.uy/Osecciones/vida/nota.
aspx?id=31288http://www.elespectador.com/html/i_po
rtals/index.php?print=true&p_origin=internal&p_nam
e=content&p_id=MI-2329
http://www.ansa.it/ansalatina/notizie/fdg/20050410
2129194812/200504102129194812.html

:When Colombian children go to church they see all
these Madonna (art)|Madonnas, so clean and
perfect. In South America china-like perfection is
very much a part of the ideal of beauty. More so
even than the polychrome wood sculptures in Spain,
Latin American sculptures look like porcelain. So,
in contrast to Europe or North America, you
connect the notions of art and beauty at a very
early age. I grew up with the idea that art is
beauty. All my life I've been trying to produce
art that's beautiful to discover all the elements
that go to make up visual perfection. When you
come from my background you can’t be spoilt by
beauty, because you've ever really seen it. If
you're born in Paris, say, you can see art
everywhere, so by the time you come to create art
yourself you’re spoilt – you're tired of
beauty as such and want to do something else. With
me it was quite different. I wasn't tired of
beauty; I was hungering for it. (Fernando Botero
Paintings and Drawings. Ed. Werner Spies. Munich:
Prestel-Verlag, 1992.(Translated from German
edition Fernando Botero: Bilder, Zeichnungen,
Skulpturen.)

Interview was conducted by Peter Stepan on May 8,
1986, in Munich.