The most famous living Latin American artist, Fernando Botero (1932-) is best known for his paintings of very fat subjects. His art is abstract, in that the colors, figures and people depicted are not meant to be a representational likeness of the subject. The obesity of the subjects is designed to mock the bourgeois middle class. In one portrait, a corpulent family of four poses by an apple tree, and even the pet monkey is grossly overweight.
Born in Medellín, Botero had limited exposure to art at an early age, as most commonly accessible art in Colombia at that time was of religious images such as Madonnas and crucifixes. He originally trained as a matador, and bullfights and rings figure prominently in his early works.
In his teens, he went to Spain and Italy where he studied art and art history. He spent a few years in Mexico, where the muralist works of Diego Rivera and others greatly influenced his work. He moved to the United States in 1960 and has lived in New York and Paris ever since.
In spite of his long absence, his paintings continue to display a distinctive Colombian flavor. Botero is very highly regarded in international art circles, and is becoming well-known outside of Colombia and New York.
In the last few years, his work has become increasingly political. In 2005, he released a series of paintings and sketches concerning the U.S. torture abuse scandal at the Iraqi prison of Abu Ghraib. He has also tackled issues from his native Colombia, such as a rebel gas cylinder attack that killed 120 people in a church in May 2002.
“I grew up with the idea that art is beauty. All my life I've been trying to produce art that's beautiful to discover all the elements that go to make up visual perfection. When you come from my background you can’t be spoilt by beauty, because you've never really seen it.” -Fernando Botero
Quote source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botero