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Lot Essay
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
With an international career spanning six decades, Fernando Botero is one of the most distinguished and sought after artists of his generation. Today Botero is recognized throughout the world for his singular style that consistently blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction with its ubiquitous rotund figures that reflect his keen and witty approach to the history of art and visual representation.
A master of many mediums, Botero is as accomplished in marble and bronze as he is in oil and pastel. Beginning in the 1950s, Botero first found his signature style through painting after experimenting with the proportions of a still-life. By placing a disproportionately small sound hole in the body of a mandolin, Botero was astounded to see how the instrument was transformed into an object of exaggerated mass and monumentality. The mandolin still-life became the catalyst for Botero’s lifelong investigation of volume and form. By the 1970s, Botero’s fascination with volumetric distortion had extended beyond painting to include sculpture as well. As he explained, “For my entire life, I've felt as if I had something to say in terms of sculpture. It's a very strong desire...a special pleasure—that of touching the new reality that you create.” (quoted in E.J. Sullivan, Botero Sculpture, New York, 1986, p. 13). Indeed, all of Botero’s sculptures, from his earliest examples of small spherical heads to his present day representations of robust monumental men, women and children, are imbued with the artist’s genuine love and palpable enjoyment of creation.
One of the most important subjects in Botero’s oeuvre is the theme of domesticity and in particular the role that women play in that realm. In the present work, Botero depicts the archetype of woman as mother and nurturer to her young son, and emphasizes the universal and timeless theme of a mother’s love. With an economy of lines, Botero creates an emotive work of quiet beauty and tenderness that reminds us of our common humanity.
With an international career spanning six decades, Fernando Botero is one of the most distinguished and sought after artists of his generation. Today Botero is recognized throughout the world for his singular style that consistently blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction with its ubiquitous rotund figures that reflect his keen and witty approach to the history of art and visual representation.
A master of many mediums, Botero is as accomplished in marble and bronze as he is in oil and pastel. Beginning in the 1950s, Botero first found his signature style through painting after experimenting with the proportions of a still-life. By placing a disproportionately small sound hole in the body of a mandolin, Botero was astounded to see how the instrument was transformed into an object of exaggerated mass and monumentality. The mandolin still-life became the catalyst for Botero’s lifelong investigation of volume and form. By the 1970s, Botero’s fascination with volumetric distortion had extended beyond painting to include sculpture as well. As he explained, “For my entire life, I've felt as if I had something to say in terms of sculpture. It's a very strong desire...a special pleasure—that of touching the new reality that you create.” (quoted in E.J. Sullivan, Botero Sculpture, New York, 1986, p. 13). Indeed, all of Botero’s sculptures, from his earliest examples of small spherical heads to his present day representations of robust monumental men, women and children, are imbued with the artist’s genuine love and palpable enjoyment of creation.
One of the most important subjects in Botero’s oeuvre is the theme of domesticity and in particular the role that women play in that realm. In the present work, Botero depicts the archetype of woman as mother and nurturer to her young son, and emphasizes the universal and timeless theme of a mother’s love. With an economy of lines, Botero creates an emotive work of quiet beauty and tenderness that reminds us of our common humanity.