Standing Woman at OUE Downtown Gallery
Reclining Woman at the St. Regis Hotel
Hidden in Plain Sight
Discovering singapore's vibrant street art scene by Jennifer Williams and Isabelle Tadmoury
Boterismo is everywhere!
For a small country, Singapore has a high number of Fernando Botero’s famous voluptuous sculptures. Botero is one of South America’s best-known artists, recognized for his rotund and whimsical figures and objects that tower over their regular-sized observers. Along with the numerous Botero sculptures that can be seen in his native Medellín, Columbia, his multi-million dollar artworks can be found in key cities around the world. His statues grace the streets of New York, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, and Jerusalem. Singapore joins this list with seven Botero masterpieces scattered throughout the city. From the exaggerated nude Adam and Eve who welcome visitors to the lobby of Resorts World Sentosa’s Hotel Michael, to the Reclining Woman who lies in front of the entrance of the St. Regis Hotel, Botero’s statues -- 22 --
are the statement pieces of some of the finest art collections in Southeast Asia. The St Regis is home to two more Boteros; the Dancing Couple, inside the hotel on a table top and the Lady Lying by the Pool. Size is Botero’s trademark and, while some observers are inclined to call his subjects fat, Botero insists that he does not paint fat people. He says “I am interested in volume, the sensuality of form. If I paint a woman, a man, a dog or a horse, I always do with this idea of volume, it is not that I have an obsession with fat women.” He manipulates space and perspective to show the monumentality of his subjects. As with all great art, Botero is no stranger to controversy and sometimes beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In 2020, his Adam and Eve statue created a stir in Singapore when one man took offence to the large size of the nude statues. His criticism was reported by online AWA Magazine - September/October 2021
