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Lot Essay
"He has the greatest reverence for horses...his father rode a horse through the hills of Antioquia. Botero's equally affectionate evocations of all of his various animals remind us that he thinks of these creatures as integral to his own personal universe." E. J. Sullivan, Botero Sculpture, 1984.
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 as a young 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).
The overall monumentality and sheer massiveness of Fernando Botero's rotund figures is perhaps nowhere more evident and effective than in his sculptural works. For it is here that the flatness of his pictorial surfaces gives way to a sense of mass and form that harks back to the artist's study of the Renaissance masters-Giotto, Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Uccello. Botero adopted the medium of sculpture in the 1970s, having developed his extraordinary and distinctive painterly style in the years preceding. 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).
The two figures of the woman combined with the horse here make for a powerful statement with historic undertones. As Rocío Aranda Alvarado, curator, El Museo del Barrio, New York has remarked: “In the 1970s, Botero began to work on his bronze sculptures that rendered both human and animal figures into monumental beings. Among his inventory of bronze animal figures that includes birds, dogs, and cats, the horses are arguably the most majestic. An acknowledged lover of form and volume, Botero's Horse highlights the artist's study of these effects in the paintings of Renaissance masters. Perhaps most relevant is Botero's admiration for the work of the Quattrocento artist Paolo Uccello, whose paintings of epic battles, such as his Battle of San Romano (c. 1435-1455), afforded a view of the horse's body from various perspectives.”
In addition to Uccello’s masterpiece, the ample and stoic form of Woman on a Horse calls to mind a lineage of impressive female characters from dieties Athena to Epona, the heroines of Lady Godiva and the Amazons, all of whom have been memorialized throughout the history of art for their valiance and honour displayed through courageous pursuits. Botero’s woman rides proudly and gracefully atop her noble steed, her hand gently and reassuringly placed aside its mane. Her nakedness not a sign of vulnerability but strength, her clothing removed as a device to immortalise her, embodying the l’éternel féminin , without reference to a specific time or place. As such, in her primary state, she remains in communion with her noble animal who mimics her proportions. She may be a goddess, a warrior or a girl at a theme park riding on a carousel, but her sense of gentle strength, her courage and her affinity with the natural world remain the same, here monumentalized by Botero’s masterful hand.
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 as a young 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).
The overall monumentality and sheer massiveness of Fernando Botero's rotund figures is perhaps nowhere more evident and effective than in his sculptural works. For it is here that the flatness of his pictorial surfaces gives way to a sense of mass and form that harks back to the artist's study of the Renaissance masters-Giotto, Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Uccello. Botero adopted the medium of sculpture in the 1970s, having developed his extraordinary and distinctive painterly style in the years preceding. 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).
The two figures of the woman combined with the horse here make for a powerful statement with historic undertones. As Rocío Aranda Alvarado, curator, El Museo del Barrio, New York has remarked: “In the 1970s, Botero began to work on his bronze sculptures that rendered both human and animal figures into monumental beings. Among his inventory of bronze animal figures that includes birds, dogs, and cats, the horses are arguably the most majestic. An acknowledged lover of form and volume, Botero's Horse highlights the artist's study of these effects in the paintings of Renaissance masters. Perhaps most relevant is Botero's admiration for the work of the Quattrocento artist Paolo Uccello, whose paintings of epic battles, such as his Battle of San Romano (c. 1435-1455), afforded a view of the horse's body from various perspectives.”
In addition to Uccello’s masterpiece, the ample and stoic form of Woman on a Horse calls to mind a lineage of impressive female characters from dieties Athena to Epona, the heroines of Lady Godiva and the Amazons, all of whom have been memorialized throughout the history of art for their valiance and honour displayed through courageous pursuits. Botero’s woman rides proudly and gracefully atop her noble steed, her hand gently and reassuringly placed aside its mane. Her nakedness not a sign of vulnerability but strength, her clothing removed as a device to immortalise her, embodying the l’éternel féminin , without reference to a specific time or place. As such, in her primary state, she remains in communion with her noble animal who mimics her proportions. She may be a goddess, a warrior or a girl at a theme park riding on a carousel, but her sense of gentle strength, her courage and her affinity with the natural world remain the same, here monumentalized by Botero’s masterful hand.