Art News

Colombian sculptor and painter Fernando Botero released from hospital in Bogota

BOGOTA.- Colombian sculptor and painter Fernando Botero has been released from a hospital. Both doctors and relatives say he’s doing well. Juan David Botero tells The Associated Press his brother went to a hospital because he felt ill due to a sudden change in altitude as he travelled from sea level to the city of Rionegro at about 7,000 feet (2,130 meters). He says the 79-year-old artist now is doing “very well.” Dr. Juan Manuel Sierra says Botero was examined by internists, cardiologists and urgent care specialists after coming to his San Vicente Foundation clinic on Tuesday. Botero is famed for portrayals of fat figures. His monumental bronze sculpture titled “Dancers” was auctioned for more than $1.7 million in New York recently. Botero was born in Medellín, Colombia in 1932. He moved to Bogotá in 1951 and had his first show there the same year at Galeria Leo Matiz. His first retrospective took place in 1970 in Germany at museums in Baden Baden, Berlin, Dusseldorf and Hambur