Today marks the 90th birthday of Fernando Botero, a Colombian painter, sculptor and draftsman, who has been known for developing his works with voluminous characters and objects in various settings. 

Botero has repeatedly said that he "does not paint fat people", but that he works with volume. And his son also says that this is the key to give "magnificence, plasticity and sensuality" to his strokes.

In Cartagena de Indias, Botero's most representative piece is "La Gorda Gertrudis" or colloquially known as "La Gorda Botero", a sculpture of a jet-colored woman, with voluminous curves, naked, with a half-sideways pose that, according to locals, touching her brings good luck in love.

La Gorda Botero is one of the best known works of the author by Colombians, as it is located in a very busy place in the city, the Plaza Santo Domingo in the Historic Center. 

This work of Botero weighs 650 kilos and was brought from Florence, Italy in 2000, as a donation of the sculptor Botero Angulo, during the administration of Gina Benedetti de Velez. 

90 years dedicated to art

At the beginning of Botero's career, his paintings were worth 10 dollars for the small ones and up to 200 dollars for the big ones, today they are on the list of the best sellers in Latin America. His most expensive painting, "The Musicians", reached the historic price of 2.3 million dollars, allowing his talent to be recognized beyond Colombia.

At the age of 90, Fernando Botero leads a placid life with the fruit of his years of tireless work. His main residence is in Monte Carlo, but he has others in New York, Paris, Bogota and Rionegro, Antioquia, where he is from.