各国名人英文介绍-Fernando Botero（在线收听）

Fernando Botero was born in 1932 in Medellin, Colombia. He paints in the neo-figurative style and calls himself "the most Colombian of Colombian artists". He largely paints large people – figures that are much larger than life in all parts of their body. His critics often call them “fat people”. Botero doesn’t know the reason why he paints such obese forms.

Botero grew up looking at paintings in his local Catholic church. These were in the centuries-old Baroque style and influenced his style. He was never rich enough to visit galleries and see other works. He held his first exhibition when he was 20, in the capital Bogota. He used the money he received to go to Europe to study art.

Throughout the 1960s he lived in New York. He found a new inspiration in the Italian Renaissance. He began to experiment with creating volume in his figures by expanding them and compressing the space around them. This became his unique and trademark style. In 1997, Colombian terrorists destroyed his sculpture ‘Bird’ in Medellin. Seventeen people died in the attack.

Botero’s works now hang in galleries all over the world. He is guaranteed millions of dollars for each painting he does. His works instantly become collector’s items and many people buy them as investments. In 2005, Botero painted a series of 50 paintings that graphically showed the horror of the events in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. This is typical of Botero using art for social commentary.