Colombia's most famous artist, Fernando Botero, who was known for his voluptuous depictions of people and animals, has died aged 91.
"Fernando Botero, the painter of our traditions and defects, the painter of our virtues, has died," President Gustavo Petro wrote on the X platform previously known as Twitter.
“The painter of our violence and of peace. He painted the pigeon that was rejected one thousand times, and put one thousand times on a throne,” he added, referring to the bird the late painter used in one of his symbolic paintings.
The president did not mention where the artist died.
Born in 1932, in Medellín, Colombia, Botero is one of the most esteemed artists in the 20th century.
Local media hailed Botero as the greatest Colombian artist of all time, reporting his health had deteriorated in recent days.
"I often think about death and it saddens me to leave this world and not be able to paint more. I love it so much," the late artist said in an interview with AFP in 2012, the year of his 80th birthday.
Botero was drawn to art at a young age, and by 15, he was selling his paintings of bulls and matadors in Bogota.
After a first solo exhibition in the capital Bogota in the 1950s, Botero left for Europe, travelling to Spain, France and Italy, where he discovered classical art. Then, he moved to Mexico and fell under the influence of its muralists.
His artistic journey debuted in the 1970s, when he met Dietrich Malov, the director of the German Museum in New York, with whom he organized several successful exhibitions.
