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In Short
“Botero the sculptor embraces the world he creates in three-dimensional form. He forms it, molds it, hugs it, and makes it a perfect universe of spherical shapes that are the faultless simulacra of his ideal of earthly perfection” – Edward Sullivan
Venus of Praxiteles with Cupid, Musée du Louvre, Paris, Photo: Daniel Lebee / Carine Deambrosis © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NYExemplifying Fernando Botero’s trademark approach to form, Woman transmutes his career-long investigation of volume into actual three-dimensional space on a colossal scale. Drawing from myriad influences—from Ancient Greek and Renaissance sculptures to Mexican muralism—Botero developed a singular style, known as “Boterismo,” which is characterized by his treatment of large, voluptuous figures depicted in scenes of leisure. His works’ exaggerated proportions are not meant to be understood as reflections of his subject’s actual body shapes; instead, they are a means of pictorial deformation—in the same sense that Pablo Picasso deformed his figures in his Cubist pictures.
“In art, as long as you have ideas and think, you are bound to deform nature. Art is deformation” – Fernando BoteroBotero's Path to Monumentality
"Monumentality is not a question of size. Truly monumental works conquer the space around them, they are eternal" - Fernando Botero In 1953, Botero relocated to Florence to study at the Accademia San Marco, where he first encountered 15th and 16th Italian art, such as the frescoes of Piero della Francesca. The period he spent in Italy was immensely formative, and Renaissance models of perspective and representation are palpable throughout his entire oeuvre. 
Pierro della Francesca, Saint Mary “della Misericordia”, 1445-1460 (center piece of the poliptych painted for the Confratelli della Misericordia), Pinacoteca Communale, Sansepolcro, Photo credit: Erich Lessing / Art Resource Botero left Europe and moved back to South America, settling in Mexico in 1956. After being introduced to Mexican art, he began to enlarge the faces and other key features of his subjects, which became a signature component of his style. That same year, he painted Still Life with Mandolin, in which he unlocked an idiosyncratic aesthetic characterized by exaggerated proportions and voluminous motifs. 
Fernando Botero, Still Life with Mandolin, 1956. Artwork © Fernando Botero 
Fernando Botero in his studio, circa 1960.
Though Botero began experimenting with sculpture as early as 1963, due to financial constraints, he was unable to begin exploring the potentiality of sculpture in earnest until settling in Paris in 1973.
Fernando Botero’s studio in Pietra Santa, Tuscany, 1995. Photo by Catherine Panchout/Sygma via Getty Images, Artwork © Fernando Botero
In 1983, Botero settled in Pietra Santa in Tuscany, where he began dedicating himself to sculpture for at least several months each year. He began working with the Fonderia Artistica Mariani, which developed an innovative method of bronze casting that enabled the artist to produce monumental sculptures with a relative reduction in weight."Monumentality is not a question of size. Truly monumental works conquer the space around them, they are eternal" - Fernando Botero In 1953, Botero relocated to Florence to study at the Accademia San Marco, where he first encountered 15th and 16th Italian art, such as the frescoes of Piero della Francesca. The period he spent in Italy was immensely formative, and Renaissance models of perspective and representation are palpable throughout his entire oeuvre. Pierro della Francesca, Saint Mary “della Misericordia”, 1445-1460 (center piece of the poliptych painted for the Confratelli della Misericordia), Pinacoteca Communale, Sansepolcro, Photo credit: Erich Lessing / Art Resource
Provenance
Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1999Exhibited
Monte Carlo, Marisa del Re Gallery, Fernando Botero, March 20 – September 30, 1992 (another example exhibited and illustrated)
Paris, Aux Champs-Elysées, Botero: Sculptures Monumentales, October 22, 1992 – January 30, 1993 (another example exhibited and illustrated)
New York, Park Avenue Public Art Fund, Fernando Botero: Botero in New York, September 7 – November 14, 1993, no. 25 (another example exhibited and illustrated)Literature
Carol Vogel, “Inside Art”, The New York Times, July 30, 1993 (another example illustrated)
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.
Property from a Private Collection, Beverly Hills
23
Woman
incised with the artist’s signature, number and foundry mark “Botero EA 2/2 FONDERIA MARIANI” on the base
bronze
118 x 48 x 48 in. (299.7 x 121.9 x 121.9 cm)
Executed in 1989, this work is artist’s proof 2 from an edition of 3 plus 2 artist’s proofs.
Other examples from the edition are housed in the permanent collections of the Antioquia Museum, Medellín; Ravinia Park, Chicago; and the Denver Performing Arts Complex.
Estimate
$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,004,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
Head of Evening Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1278
20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 2 July 2020
1
Titus Kaphar
Untitled (red thread lady)
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $187,500
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2
Matthew Wong
Mood Room
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $848,000
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3
Lucas Arruda
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $350,000
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4
Helen Frankenthaler
Head of the Meadow
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $3,020,000
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5
Joan Mitchell
Noël
Estimate $9,500,000 - 12,500,000
Sold for $11,062,500
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6
Christina Quarles
Placed
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $400,000
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7
Francis Picabia
Portrait de femme
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $350,000
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8
KAWS
COMPANION (DETAIL OF CROWD SHOT)
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,380,000
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9
Robert Nava
The Tunnel
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $162,500
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10
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Victor 25448
Estimate $8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for $9,250,000
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11
George Condo
Stump Head
Estimate $900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,050,000
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12
Banksy
Monkey Poison
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,000,000
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13
Maxfield Parrish
Humpty Dumpty
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $740,000
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14
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
Shade of Black
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $250,000
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15
Charles White
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $800,000
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16
Ali Banisadr
Motherboard
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $572,000
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17
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (801-3)
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $3,680,000
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18
Albert Oehlen
Im Museum II
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $560,000
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19
Thomas Struth
Notre Dame, Paris
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $400,000
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20
David Hammons
Hidden Drawing (Jordan begins 8th season as No. 1)
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $181,250
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21
Julio González
L'arlequin / Pierrot ou Colombine
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $920,000
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22
Amoako Boafo
Joy in Purple
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $668,000
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23
Fernando Botero
Woman
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,004,000
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24
Donald Judd
Untitled
Estimate $550,000 - 750,000
Sold for $680,000
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25
Sturtevant
Stella Gran Cairo
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $620,000
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