- World-famous Colombian artist known for his sculptures and paintings of corpulent figures.
- He lived in Florence from 1953 to 1954, studying the works of Renaissance masters.
- Self-styled "the most Colombian of Colombian artists", Botero came to national prominence when he won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1958.
- In 1952, using his gallery earnings, Botero sailed to Europe. He arrived in Barcelona and then moved on to Madrid. In Madrid, Botero studied at the Academia de San Fernando and was a frequent visitor to the Prado Museum, where he copied works by Goya and Velázquez.
- In 1953, Botero moved to Paris, where he spent most of his time in the Louvre, studying the works there.
- In 1958, he won the ninth edition of the Salón de Artistas Colombianos.
- Young Botero also worked as a newspaper illustrator to support his artistic interests and before attending San Fernando Academy. The Pérez Art Museum Miami acquired a still life picture of Botero's early days of career depicting apples, an influence of European art historical movements and 20th-century painters.
- Botero received his primary education at the Ateneo Antioqueño and, thanks to a scholarship, he continued his secondary education at the Jesuit School of Bolívar.
- In 1944, Botero's uncle sent him to a school for matadors for two years.
- From 1949 to 1950, Botero worked as a set designer, before moving to Bogotá in 1951.
- His art is collected by many major international museums, corporations, and private collectors.
- He was considered the most recognized and quoted artist from Latin America in his lifetime, and his art can be found in highly visible places around the world, such as Park Avenue in New York City and the Champs-Élysées in Paris, at different times.
- Botero's 1964 painting Pope Leo X (after Raphael) has found a second life as a popular internet meme. It is typically seen with the caption "y tho".
- In 2012, he received the International Sculpture Center's Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.
- His first one-man show was held at the Galería Leo Matiz in Bogotá, a few months after his arrival.
- He was a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor. His signature style, also known as "Boterismo", depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or humor, depending on the piece.
- He had more than 50 exhibitions in major cities worldwide, and his work commands selling prices in the millions of dollars.
- In 1948, Botero at the age of 16 had his first illustrations published in the Sunday supplement of El Colombiano, one of the most important newspapers in Medellín. He used the money he was paid to attend high school at the Liceo de Marinilla de Antioquia.
- Although isolated from art as presented in museums and other cultural institutes, Botero was influenced by the Baroque style of the colonial churches and the city life of Medellín while growing up.
- He began creating sculptures after moving to Paris in 1973, achieving international recognition with exhibitions around the world by the 1990s.
- In 2000, Botero donated 123 pieces of his work and 85 pieces from his personal collection to the Museo Botero in Bogotá, including works by Chagall, Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, and the French impressionists.
- In 2006, after having focused exclusively on the Abu Ghraib series for over 14 months, Botero returned to the themes of his early life such as the family and motherhood. In his Une Famille Botero represented the Colombian family, a subject often painted in the 1970s and 1980s.
- Mario Vargas Llosa's 2023 novel Le dedico mi silencio uses Botero's 1979 painting Los músicos as its cover illustration.
- In response to the Colombian peace process, Botero sculpted and donated La paloma de la paz (2016) to the Government of Colombia to commemorate the signing and ratification of the agreement.
- Though he spent only one month a year in Colombia, he considered himself the "most Colombian artist living", due to his isolation from the international trends of the art world.
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