Botero - Voluptuous in Vogue

voluptuouS IN VOGUE —BOTERO Beauty presented by the messenger of curves, the maestro of rounded forms.

Turning traditional conceptions on their head and slipping the viewer out of societal blinders into unassuming endearment, the forms of Botero are champions of the unsaid and unseen, speaking through in-expression, grandiose in their commonplace and creators of their own standards of beauty.

FORE WORD

FOREWORD To hear Botero talk about his art is to listen to his passion; the same passion that sculpts the rounded hips of his sensual and voluptuous muses, the same passion that forms muted smiles on the face of extraordinary everyday characters, delicate contours in still life and the political fury of his denotive imagery. There is history in his works- a culture and an artistic revolution that renders him not only etched into the golden halls of artistic remembrance, but as, “The most Colombian of all Colombian artists”.

of Botero are champions of the unsaid and unseen, speaking through in-expression, grandiose in their commonplace and creators of their own standards of beauty.

Creating an oeuvre that includes influences of everything from the frescoes of Pierro Della Franseca, to Goya, to Manet, to Matisse- Botero’s art skims both rule and passion to come together as art that surpasses canonical identification and yet, adheres to stable technical skill.

Using his images as his language of expression, Botero seems to me a narrator- a teller of fables with a libertarian accent whose power is the sedentary, and whose wisdom is wrapped in subtleties of irony and, sometimes, inherently scathing commentary. Turning traditional conceptions on their head and slipping the viewer out of societal blinders into unassuming endearment, the forms

The ultimate beauty of Botero’s works, is the power of interpretation they hold. They could represent beauty, unsightliness, comfort, confidence, sloth, mundane, extravagant- they have the power to mould to any perception and yet, have an aura that is distinctly Botero. Surpassing medium, surpassing convention- the works of Botero can take you on a journey through the artist’s mind or your own; through the historical events or simply images of emotion. They could be Colombian- they could be Universal- the possibilities are endless. Join us as we explore the infinity of his works, bounded by exaggerated outlines and even larger emotions; Join us as we attempt to fathom the enigmatic Fernando Botero.

Conceptual interpretations apart, the strokes of Botero- be it those of paint or charcoal, are resplendent in the soundness of their form. Technical virtuosity is Botero’s secret weapon- the allure behind the captivating image, and the establishment of his extent of skill. Botero brings together his technique with deceptively simple forms, reveling in the celebration of the ordinary and all the while, staying true to the traditions of Latin American art.

The flatness, bright colors and boldly outlines figures speak as much of his culture, as do his subjects of choice- be it a rounded horse, a tepid couple dancing in mundane familiarity, or Pablo Escobar dead on a roof; the simple imageries of Botero have evolved into iconic symbols of not only ‘Boterismo’, but a wholly contemporary movement of abstract interpretation. The Horse of Botero has grown to become one of his most recognizable formsI am delighted to present to you the just as his characteristic curves define his endearing subjects. Animals, still man who needs no introduction; the life, people in process of the incredibly ordinary- his art reflects his refreshmessenger of curves, the maestro of ingly altered worldview and his tenacity of expression, perception and rounded form- Fernando Botero. alternatively communicative works.

by Jazz Chong Director, Ode to Art

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Seated Man Charcoal on Paper 66 x 91.5 cm

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Man Smoking Watercolor on Paper 30 x 40 cm

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Dressed in Grey Watercolor on Paper 32 x 38cm

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The Ring Master Pencil on Paper 28 x 39 cm

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Trapezista Com Cachorro Graphite and Color Pencil on Paper 41 x 31 cm

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Trapeze Artists Graphite and color pencil on paper 39.3 x 30cm

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On the Beach Water Color on Paper 31 x 41cm

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Woman in Profile Charcoal on Paper 36 x 46 cm

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Dancers Charcoal and Water Colour on Canvas 133 x 98 cm

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The Dancers Charcoal on Paper 35 x 42 cm

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The General Watercolor on Paper 30 x 40 cm

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Dancers Charcoal on Canvas 132 x 89 cm

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Model in the Studio Oil on Canvas 56 x 44 cm

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Painter of Still Lifes Oil on Canvas 38 x 39cm

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Ucello Bronze 52 x 43 x 57cm

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Man on a Horse Bronze 59x 46 x 29.5 cm

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Horse Bronze 100 x 60 x 94 cm

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BIOGRAPHY Born in 1932 in Medellin, Colombia, Fernando Botero is an artistic living legend of our times. A prolific artist and creator of the signature style ‘Boterismo’, the artist’s rounded musings have made him a global figure in the contemporary art world, and the artistic ambassador of Colombian pursuit. Instantly recognizable by his enlarged forms, the artist breaks through the glass ceiling of conformed aesthetics and creates beauty in the face of the ordinary. Rounded from convention, distinctive in spite of the common place, and tied to Colombian history and heritage- his simple forms have reached monumental heights, and are collected by major museums, corporations and private collectors all over the world, including the United States, Korea (Seoul), and Mexico City, to name a few.

Debuting in the artistic scene in 1948 when he was just 16 years old, Botero studied painting in Madrid, and was influenced by the artworks of Francisco de Goya and Diego Velázquez. He had his first exhibition in 1948 and first solo exhibition 2 years later. Self-titled “the most Colombian of Colombian artists” early on, he came to national prominence when he won the first prize at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1958.

Throughout the 1950s, Botero experimented with proportion and size, and he began developing his trademark style— round, bloated humans and animals—after he moved to New York City in 1960.

The inflated proportions of his figures, including those in Presidential Family (1967), suggest an element of political satire, and are depicted using flat, bright color and prominently outlined forms—a testamanet to Latin-American folk art.

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While the artist’s works include still-lifes and landscapes, his most popular works are his emblematic situational portraitures.

After reaching an international audience with his art, in 1973, Botero moved to Paris, where he began creating sculptures. These works extended the foundational themes of his painting, as he again focused on his bloated subjects. As his sculpture developed, by the 1990s, outdoor exhibitions of huge bronze figures were staged around the world to great success. In 2004 Botero exhibited a series of 27 drawings and 23 paintings dealing with the violence in Colombia from the drug cartels. He donated the works to the National Museum of Colombia, where they were first exhibited. In 2005 Botero gained considerable attention for his Abu Ghraib series, which was exhibited first in Europe. He based the works on reports of United States forces’ abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq War. Beginning with an idea he had on a plane journey, Botero produced more than 85 paintings and 100 drawings in exploring this concept and “painting out the poison”.

The series was exhibited at two United States locations in 2007, including Washington, DC. Botero said he would not sell any of the works, but would donate them to museums. In 2006, after having focused exclusively on the Abu Ghraib series for over 14 months, Botero returned to the themes of his early life such as the family and maternity. In his Une FamilleBotero represented the Colombian family, a subject often painted in the seventies and eighties. In his Maternity, Botero repeated a composition he already painted in 2003, being able to evoke a sensuous velvety texture that lends it a special appeal and testifies for a personal involvement of the artist. The child in the 2006 drawing has a wound in his right chest as if the Author wanted to identify him with Jesus Christ, thus giving it a religious meaning that was absent in the 2003 artwork. In 2008 he exhibited the works of his The Circus collection, featuring 20 works in oil and watercolor.

In a 2010 interview, Botero said that he was ready for other subjects: “After all this, I always return to the simplest things: still lifes.” His works feature a figurative style, known as “Boterismo”, giving them an unmistakable identity. Botero depicts women, men, daily life, historical events and characters, milestones of art, still-life, animals and the natural world in general, with exaggerated and disproportionate volumetry, accompanied by fine details of scathing criticism, irony, humor, and ingenuity. His paintings and sculptures are united by their proportionally exaggerated or “fat” figures, as he once referred to them. Botero is an abstract artist in the most fundamental sense, choosing colors, shapes, and proportions based on intuitive aesthetic thinking. Though he spends only one month a year in Colombia, he considers himself the “most Colombian artist living” due to his insulation from the international trends of the art world. In the last three decades, he has achieved international recognition for his paintings, drawings and sculpture, with exhibitions across the world. His art is now widely known as a kep part of the makings of modern contemporary art history.

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ArtStage, Singapore, ODE TO ART

2012

Fernando Botero: Monumental Sculpture, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States. Via Crucis: The Passion of Christ, Museum of Antioquia, Medellín, Columbia. Fernando Botero: disegnatore e scultore, PartArt, Pietrasanta, Italy.Fernado Botero. Una celebración, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico.

2011

Botero, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna, Austria. The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, United States. Fernando Botero, Via Crucis: The Passion of Christ, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States.

2010

Botero, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey. Fernando Botero, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, United States. Inaugural Exhibition: Fernando Botero, David Benrimon Gallery, New York, New York, United States.2010 - 2011 Botero, Galeria Mundo, Bogotá, Colombia. Botero in LA: Drawings, Paintings, Sculpture, Tasende Gallery, West Hollywood, California, United States. Fernando Botero: Monumental Sculptore, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, New York, United States. Fernando Botero: Monumental Sculpture, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, New York, United States. Botero: Paintings and Drawings, The Vered Art Gallery, New York, New York, United States. Fernando Botero: Exposition de sculptures monumentales, The City of Saint-Tropez & Marlborough Monaco, Saint-Tropez, Monaco. The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada, United States.

2009

El Dolor de Colombia, Pinacoteca Diego Rivero, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Fernando Botero: Gente del circo, Contini Art Gallery, Venice, Italy. Fernando Botero, Galerie Thomas, Munich, Germany. Fernando Botero, National Museum of Contemporary Art in Deoksu Palace, Seoul, Korea. Fernando Botero: The Circus, James Goodman Gallery, Inc., New York, New York, United States. The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States.2009 - 2010Fernando Botero: The Abu Ghraib Series, The Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California, United States.Testimonios de la barbarie, El Museo Nacional de Mexico, Tlaxcala, Mexico. el Ministerio de Cultura, de ese país, y las autoridades culturales de Tlaxcala

2008

Fernando Botero, The Circus Series, Galerie Gmurzynska, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. traveled to Thomas Gibson Fine Art Ltd., London, England (through 2009)Abu Ghraib-El Circo, Casa das Artes de Vigo, Vigo, Spain. Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Centro Julio Gonzalez, Valencia, Spain.

2007

Botero in Berlin, Lustgarten on the Museumsinsel, Berlin, Germany.2007 - 2011The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Québec, Canada. traveled to the San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas; Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California Fernando Botero, Kunsthalle Würth, Künzelsau, Baden-Würrtemberg, Germany.Botero - Oeuvres récentes, Marlborough Monte carlo, Monte Carlo, Monaco.

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Fernando Botero: Abu Ghraib, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States. traveled to University of California, Berkeley, California; Katzen Center of Art, American University, Washington DC; Monterrey, Mexico; Spain (through 2008)Fernando Botero, Athens Concert Hall, Athens, Greece.

2005

Fernando Botero - The Last 15 Years, Palazzo Venezia, Rome, Italy. Fernando Botero, Kunsthalle Würth, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Group E x h i b i t ion s

2013

Fernando Botero, Richard Estes, Manolo Valdes: Peintures et Sculptures, Marlborough Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco. Obra sobre papel: Explorando El Trazo, Marlborough Barcelona, Valencia, Spain.

2012

Art at War, The Beach Institute, Savannah, Georgia, United States.

2011

Summer Group Exhibition, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States.

Zoom Latinamericano, Museo Nacional, Bogata, Colombia.

2010

10 ans deja, Marlborough Monaco, Monaco, France. Latinas!, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, United States.

2009

Latin American Flavor, Opera Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Life, Opera Gallery, London, England. Innovations in the Third Dimension: Sculpture of Our Times, Bruce Museum, Greenwich , Connecticut, United States. arteaméricas, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, Florida, United States. Exhibition of 20th-Century Art, Gramercy Park Hotel lobby, New York, New York, United States. Works on Paper, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States. Fernando Botero and Dario Ortisz, Levant Art Gallery, Shanghai, China. Insights on Still Life: From Matisse & Picasso to Botero & Muños Vera, Gary Nader Fine Art, Coral Gables, Florida, United States. Beyond LImits, Sotheby’s at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England. Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States.

2008

Latin American Art, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States. Beyond Limits, Sotheby’s at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England. SH Contemporary 2008, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China. with Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York Art of Democracy: War and Empire, Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, California, United States. Masterpieces in Miniature, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, United States. Group Exhibition,

2007

Marlborough Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco. Summer Group Exhibition, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States. Korea International Art Fair, x, Seoul, South Korea. Sculpture from the Mouse House: The Olga Hirshhorn Collection at the Corcoran, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States. through 2009The Sculptor’s Hand, Tasende Gallery, West Hollywood, California, United States.The Grand Show, Gary Nader Fine Art, Miami, Florida, United States. through 2009

2006

Summer Group Exhibition, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States.

Latin Masters, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, United States.

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Works on Paper, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States. Landscape, Cityscape, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York, United States. Beyond Geography, Americas Society, New York, New York, United States. pub l ic col l ec t ion s Cafesjian Center for the Arts, Yerevan, Armenia National Museum of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia University of California, Berkeley, California, United States Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Hanover Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá, Colombia Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, Germany Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas, United States Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Tokushima, Japan The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Isreal Staatgalerie Moderne Kunst, Munich, Germany Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyungju, South Korea Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia Ponce Museum of Art, Ponce, Puerto Rico Niigata Prefectoral Modern Art Museum, Niigata, Japan New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, United States Museum Moderne Kunst, Vienna, Austria Museum of Art, The Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, United States Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile Museo Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamanashi, japan Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela Museo de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia Museo d’Arte Moderna del Vaticano, Rome, Italy Miyagi Museum of Art, Miyagi, Japan Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United StatesM.H.K. Foundation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, United States Meadow Brook Art Gallery, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, United States Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, United States Kunsthalle Nuremberg, Nuremberg, Germany Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States Ho-am Museum, Seoul, South Korea Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., United States Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, United States The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York, United States The Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University Art Collection, New York, New York, United States Gramercy Park Hotel, New York, New York, United States Gelerie-Verein, Munich, Germany Fondation Veranneman, Kruishoutem, Belgium Donación Fernando Botero, Coleccion Banco de la Republica, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia Colección Fernando Botero, Fundacion Santander Central Hispano, Medellin, Colombia Collezione d’Arte Religiosa Moderna, Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie, Vatican City, Italy Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, United States The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, United States Ateneumin Taidemuseo, Helsinki, Finland Astrup Museum, Oslo, Norway Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States

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bot ero voluptu ou s in vo gue First published 2014 on the occasion of Botero’s Voluptuous In Vogue Exhibition Held 15 - 19 Jan 2014, at Art Stage Singapore Ode To Art Raffles City 252 North Bridge Road, Raffles City Shopping Centre, #01-36E/F, Singapore 179103 T +65 6250 1901 F +65 6250 5354 Ode To Art Kuala Lumpur 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang, The Pavilion, #06-24E/F, Kuala Lumpur 55100, Malaysia Tel: +603 2148 9816 Fax: +603 2142 6816 info@odetoart.com odetoart.com Š Ode To Art 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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