Fat Lady by Fernando Botero
Bronze statue of a Fat Lady with a mirror (Mujer con espejo) by Fernando Botero. This sculpture is located at Plaza de Colon in Madrid, Spain. The sculpture was a gift from the Colombian sculptor to the city of Madrid.
The lady is lying on the floor, face down looking distractedly in the direction of the Plaza de Colón. She has a mirror in her hand and holds her hair, in a gesture of coquetry. Her face has an indifferent and thoughtful gesture.
About Botero
Fernando Botero Angulo was a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor who died in 2023. 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.
Self-styled “the most Colombian of Colombian artists”, he came to national prominence when he won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1958. He began creating sculptures after moving to Paris in 1973, achieving international recognition with exhibitions around the world by the 1990s. His art is collected by many major international museums, corporations, and private collectors, sometimes selling for millions of dollars.
Did you know that
At the age of 16 Botero 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. Many years later, In 2012, he received the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.
On 10 June 1995 a bomb containing 10 kg of dynamite was placed underneath one of Botero’s bronze sculptures on display in Medellín’s Plaza San Antonio. The resulting explosion killed 23 people and injured 200 more; the perpetrators were never identified. A horrified Botero decided that the damaged sculpture should be left in place as a “monument to the country’s imbecility and criminality” and donated an intact replica to stand alongside it.
