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Lot Essay
Working across all media—painting, sculpture and works on paper—Fernando Botero has developed a signature style that is celebrated and admired world-wide. From his earliest paintings he did as a boy, to his present day creations, Botero’s art can be characterized by an unwavering interest in volume and form. As he once explained, "What I am concerned with is form—creating smooth, rounded surfaces that emphasize the sensuality of my work" (quoted in E.J. Sullivan, op. cit, p. 55).
While Botero has taken on many subjects over the course of his sixty-year career from circus performers and prostitutes to dancing couples and nuclear families, the voluptuous female form remains his constant muse. She appears in canvas, paper, bronze and marble throughout the artist's long, prolific career. Although Botero began exploring this subject in his paintings of the 1950s, his fleshy figures do not materialize in sculpture until the 1970s. Reclining Nude is an iconic early example of Botero's investigation of his most beloved theme in three dimensions. A young woman gracefully lounges on her side while beneath her a swirl of drapery echoes her undulating form. When seen from behind, the woman becomes a study in curves, beginning with her hair which falls in neat waves down her back and is followed by the repeating rolls of flesh on her buttocks and legs. Reclining Nude captures what Botero considers the essence of his work—a tangible sensuality, exemplified here in the woman's corporal fullness. As he once poetically 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…pleasure—that of touching the new reality that you create. Certainly, in a painting you give the illusion of truth, but with sculpture you can touch reality…If I paint a knife in my pictures, it’s imaginary, but if I sculpt it, then the sensation of having it in your hand is real—it’s an object from your spirit, it’s a sensual experience even in its execution. It brings a special joy to touch the material with your hands" (ibid., p.13).
While Reclining Nude is unmistakably Botero in style, she is also part of a long lineage of female nudes in art. Voluptuous women appear in art throughout history from the Venus of Willendorf to the Renaissance and Baroque goddesses of Titian and Rubens to the smooshed figures of contemporary artist Jenny Saville. Botero, who devoted himself at a young age to studying the work of European masters, is well versed in this tradition of depicting the female form, yet he is able to transform this iconic subject into his own distinct creations.
While Botero has taken on many subjects over the course of his sixty-year career from circus performers and prostitutes to dancing couples and nuclear families, the voluptuous female form remains his constant muse. She appears in canvas, paper, bronze and marble throughout the artist's long, prolific career. Although Botero began exploring this subject in his paintings of the 1950s, his fleshy figures do not materialize in sculpture until the 1970s. Reclining Nude is an iconic early example of Botero's investigation of his most beloved theme in three dimensions. A young woman gracefully lounges on her side while beneath her a swirl of drapery echoes her undulating form. When seen from behind, the woman becomes a study in curves, beginning with her hair which falls in neat waves down her back and is followed by the repeating rolls of flesh on her buttocks and legs. Reclining Nude captures what Botero considers the essence of his work—a tangible sensuality, exemplified here in the woman's corporal fullness. As he once poetically 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…pleasure—that of touching the new reality that you create. Certainly, in a painting you give the illusion of truth, but with sculpture you can touch reality…If I paint a knife in my pictures, it’s imaginary, but if I sculpt it, then the sensation of having it in your hand is real—it’s an object from your spirit, it’s a sensual experience even in its execution. It brings a special joy to touch the material with your hands" (ibid., p.13).
While Reclining Nude is unmistakably Botero in style, she is also part of a long lineage of female nudes in art. Voluptuous women appear in art throughout history from the Venus of Willendorf to the Renaissance and Baroque goddesses of Titian and Rubens to the smooshed figures of contemporary artist Jenny Saville. Botero, who devoted himself at a young age to studying the work of European masters, is well versed in this tradition of depicting the female form, yet he is able to transform this iconic subject into his own distinct creations.