Fernando Botero - LATIN AMERICA New York Wednesday, September 29, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Gary Nadar Collection, Miami

  • Exhibited


    Monte Carlo, Marisa del Re Gallery. Fernando Botero in Monte Carlo, March 20 - September 30, 1992; Paris, Didier Imbert Fine Art, Botero aux Champs-Elysées: Sculptures Monumnetales, October 22 -January 30, 1993; New York, Marlborough Gallery. Fernando Botero: Monumental Scultures, September 14 - November 6, 1993; Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs, Botero in Chicago, April 29 - August 14, 1994; Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Botero en Buenos Aires, April – May, 1994; Madrid, Paseo de Recoletos: Botero en Madrid, Organized by the City of Madrid. May 12 - August 12, 1994; Fort Lauderdale, The Museum of Art, Fernando Botero: Monumental Sculptures and Drawings, December 20 - May 7, 1995; Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, Monumental Sculptures, 1996; Washington, D.C., Botero in Washington, D.C. Organized by The Art Museum of the Americas in collaboration with the Marlborough Gallery, New York, September 24 - November 1, 1996; Santiago, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Fernando Botero: Esculturas Monumentales y Dibujos, March 19 - May 12, 1997; Lugano, Museo d’Arte Moderna, Monumental Sculptures in Lugano, August 1- October 12, 1998; Lisbon, Plaza del Comercio, Botero: 24 Monumentla Sculptures, November 16- March 31, 1998; São Paulo, Museo de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, Botero em São Paulo, March 17 - May 17, 1998; Eltville, Park der Villa Hayo Rutr, Mumm Akademie, Botero, July 11 - September 30, 1998; Florence, Rétrospective de scultures monumentales: Piazza della Signoria, Piazzale degli Uffizi, June – September, 1999; Venice, Botero a Venecia: Sculture e Dipinti. 24 Sculture Monumentali., 2003; Singapore, Botero in Singapore, Monumental Sculptures, paintings and drawings. December 2004 – February 2005; Miami, Gary Nader Fine Art, Fernando Botero: Homage to the Master. One Man Show: Paintings, Sculptures and Drawings, 2007; Miami, Gary Nader Fine Art, Global Botero, April 2007; Miami, Gary Nader Fine Art, Masters in Sculpture, January 2007; Miami, Gary Nader Fine Art, Fernando Botero: Monumental Sculpture, 2007; Coral Gables, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Gary Nader’s Botero Collection at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, February - May 2008; Coral Cables, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Monumental Sculpture, January - June 2009.

  • Literature

    M. del Re, Fernando Botero in Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo 1992; C. Virmaitre, Botero aux Champs-Elysées: Sculptures Monumnetales, Paris 1993; Fernando Botero: Monumental Scultures, Marlborough Gallery, New York 1993; E. Moldonado & R. Loescher, Botero in Chicago, Chicago 1994; R. Iglesia, T. Anchonera, E. Sábato & G. Whitelow, Botero en Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires 1994; F. Ayala, Paseo de Recoletos: Botero en Madrid, Madrid 1994; L. Pamer, Fernando Botero: Monumental Sculptures and Drawings, The Museum of Art, Miami 1995; A. Escallón, Botero in Washington, D.C. Organized by The Art Museum of the Americas in collaboration with the Marlborough Gallery, New York, Washington 1996; M. Carolina & A. Soffia, Fernando Botero: Esculturas Monumentales y Dibujos, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago 1997; J. Lambert Botero Sculptures, Villegas Editores, 1998; P. Polistampa, Rétrospective de scultures monumentales: Piazza della Signoria, Piazzale degli Uffizi, Florence 1999; Latin American Art :Modern Masters and Contemporary, Gary Nader Editions, 200 2, (illustrated); J.Gustavo, C. Borda & E. di, Botero a Venecia: Sculture e Dipinti. 24 Sculture Monumentali., Venice 2003; Fernando Botero, Global Botero, “Happy 75th birthday,” May 2006, p. 26 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay


    Colombian artist Fernando Botero has achieved international acclaim and recognition over the past half century for his emblematic renderings of the human and animal form. From the Champs-Elysees in Paris to Park Avenue in New York, his fulsome and abundant figures have graced some of the most prestigious stages around the world. The contours of these figures are legendary for their sensual volume, magnificent dynamism, and physical exuberance. The generously proportioned figures are formally inspired by the classical Roman and Greek sculptures Botero studied while traveling through Europe at the young and impressionable age of 19. Coming under the influence of Gauguin and Picasso’s work while studying at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Botero was fascinated by the uniquely rendered depictions of classical subjects.
    After immersing himself in the vast collections throughout Spain and later France, he finally sojourned to Florence where he studied the volumetric art of the Renaissance masters such as Giotto, Uccello and Piero della Francesca. Throughout his career, Botero never ceased referencing the masters he so admired in these early years. By around the mid 1960s, Botero had mastered the art of sculpting and arrived at his mature style. By the 1970s, he concentrated exclusively on his sculptural bronzes, characterized by the use of curvaceous figures and exaggerated forms. As exemplified by Botero’s Reclining Venus, Seated Woman, Female Torso, and Woman with Mirror, women have remained his preferred subject.
    However, in keeping with the historical tradition, Botero has intermittently depicted the male form. These male figures consistently appear in conjunction with their female counterpart, as seen in The Couple, Dancers, Lovers, and Adam and Eve. Historically, however, the male figure has been the first challenge an artist must surmount; sculptural fragments facilitated the pursuit of the perfect representation of the male anatomy. It is this tradition that makes Botero’s Male Torso one of the most important and unique works of the artist’s career. The subject alone is inextricably linked to one of the principle representations in art history: The Belvedere Torso. The heroic scale, in addition to the noteworthy reference, further alludes to the many great representations of the male figure throughout the discipline. Work of this immense proportionality is classically reserved for commemorative statues, immortalizing the great figures of history. Male Torso exhibits an entirely different mastery of the artist’s canon.
    The Male Torso not only emulates grand sculpture, but its colossal height measures to that of monumental architecture. Its dimensions and contours are embellished beyond all anatomical possibility, taking the tradition of the nude figure to soaring new heights. While the subject is time-honored, Male Torso is not without Botero’s signature style. The exaggerated chiseled abdomen and expansive upper body are imbued with the artist’s emblematic wit. Appearing almost caricature-esk in style, Male Torso is re-interpreted with great volumetric measure. With the final touch of the fig leaf used to cover the nakedness of the Male Torso, Botero has left his satirical charm on the most significant of artistic subjects. As evidenced in the present lot, Botero continues to imbue classical and conventional notions with a consummate personal style.

  • Artist Biography

    Fernando Botero

    Colombian • 1932

    Colombian artist Fernando Botero is known for his voluptuous and exaggerated paintings, sculptures and drawings. He studied under Roberto Longhi, a renowned authority on Italian Renaissance and Baroque art, obtaining a remarkable art historical knowledge of Western Classicism. This dialogue between an erudite education and religious art for the masses is the key in the development of his aesthetic.

    Botero was also influenced by Mexican muralism, with which he became acquainted while living in Mexico City. The monumental scale of the human forms in the murals gave rise to the voluminous figures for which he is best known. Botero's works make mordant comments on society's shortcomings; they also incorporate classical elements and are imbued with political satire and caricature.

    View More Works

COLOMBIAN

184

Male Torso

1992
Bronze.
130 x 70 7/8 x 158 5/8 in. (330.2 x 180 x 402.9 cm).
Signed and numbered "Botero" on the base. The work is from an edition 3.

Estimate
$1,000,000 - 1,200,000 

LATIN AMERICA

29 September 2010
New York