The Colombian artist Fernando Botero died this Friday at the age of 91, He arrived in Spain at the age of 20 “as a poor art student” who devoted himself to copying the greats of the Prado Museum, but years later this country surrendered to its art, to its ‘fatties’, to its bullfighters, to the creations that are already part of this iconography.

Why did Fernando Botero paint voluptuous people and animals?: The artist hated the term ‘fat’

He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, recalled his daughter Lina Botero in 2020, when the capital of Spain presented his work done for more than half a century in the exhibition “Botero, 60 years of painting.”

One of the three major exhibitions that Spain dedicated to this artist, in which the most complete work of the Colombian painter and sculptor was shown through 67 large-scale works.

But it was perhaps in 1994 when Botero became part of the Spanish landscape, more specifically Madrid, thanks to the open-air sculpture exhibition “Botero in Madrid”. sample in which she was elected, following a popular opinion poll Woman with mirror as a gift from the artist to the city.

An act of generosity that made him famous among the neophytes of art and that preceded him with greater success in this country where, in 1975, he also experienced one of the greatest tragedies of his life: the death of his son Pedrito at the age of four in a traffic accident that marked the artist’s life.

Years later, Seville hosted the exhibition The bullfightdedicated to bullfighting, in 1992, an art that, in statements to EFE in 2019 during the opening of another exhibition, “will always exist” for him.

Why did Fernando Botero paint voluptuous people and animals?: The artist hated the term ‘fat’

“There will be places where it is forbidden, but bulls will always exist because they are part of the Spanish and universal culture.” according to this artist, who said he felt “very Colombian” even though he lived in Europe.

Although there were not many exhibitions of the creator of the Butterism In Spain it is also worth highlighting other major exhibitions, such as the one that the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid dedicated to the Colombian in 1987: Fernando Botero: Paintings. drawings. Sculpturesand the one who took him to the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao in 2012 on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

And Botero has also been a key player in Murcia since Thursday, since it opened its doors Sensuality and melancholyan exhibition that shows his artistic evolution through works from different periods, ranging from the 1970s to more recent creations.

The Spanish government also recognized him in 2007 by awarding him the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica. (JO)