Fernando Botero art prize is scrapped following criticism by the artist.
The US$50,000 award for Latin American artists under 35 years old has been discontinued due to comments by Botero himself. The Medellin-born artist told Arcadia magazine that he was unhappy with the prize named after him because the winning works have been “very poor.”
“It has really dismayed me to see such mediocre things selected,” he continued.
The director of the Fundacion Jovenes Artistas Colombianos, Maria Elvira Pardo, told El Tiempo Monday that the award would be scrapped. She said that Botero’s comments would have a serious impact on the “juries and sponsors who believed in the prize, in Botero, and gave large sums of money. This is very sad, that’s all I can say.”
The award was started in 2005 and carried a US$50,000 cash prize.
