Colombian Museum Exhibition Celebrates Botero's 86th Birthday

Colombia's Antioquia Museum inaugurated the 'Boterosutra' exhibition in honor of acclaimed painter and sculptor Fernando Botero on his 86th birthday on Thursday. It includes five oil paintings, 16 large format drawings on canvas and 47 mixed media drawings on paper, according to Yahoo Noticias.

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The opening was accompanied by a performance by the Music School Network of Medellin.

Curator Camilo Castano said Botero "in a very generous gesture, made the proposal to bring 'Boterosutra' to the museum in Medellin, so we wanted to match his offer by celebrating his birthday, a date that is always so important to us."

Boterosutra was exhibited in several other countries in 2013. The collection displays sexual scenes between a man and a woman, as well as allusions to the history of art in general and "some issues that deal with love treaties, such as the kama sutra," Castano said.

Maria del Rosario Escobar, director of Antioquia Museum, said the presence of this series in Latin America is "unique." The institution received the work due to a "special concession" made by Botero: "The exhibition has been to France, Switzerland and Germany. This is the first time it crosses the ocean."

Boterosutra, which will be on display until August 13, has so far attracted 1,500 visitors, a figure that doubles the museum's daily attendance numbers.

Botero is internationally renowned for painting people and figures disproportionately, oftentimes in exaggerated volumes and large sizes.