FERNANDO BOTERO
Drawings and Watercolors on Canvas
Marlborough Gallery, New York
November 4 - December 5, 1998
Marlborough Gallery presents an exhibition by the world renowned Colombian artist, Fernando Botero. Botero was born in Medellin, Colombia in 1932. He moved to Bogota in 1951 where he had his first one-man show at the age of nineteen. He presently lives and works in Paris, France and Pietrasanta, Italy.
The exhibition is comprised of approximately thirty large-scale drawings on canvas and includes portraits, still lifes, and scenes of family and city life. The drawings are executed in the mediums of charcoal, sanguine and watercolor and range in size from an average of about 50 by 40 inches to a monumental triptych measuring 7 by 14 feet entitled The Street. In this “tour de force” sanguine drawing, certainly one of the largest ever done by an artist, there are three arenas of action bound together and unified structurally by a giant slabbed sidewalk and an extended row of houses that form a contiguous frieze-like background in each panel. In the left panel a man wearing a suit and tie and bowler hat is having his shoes shined by a tiny figure in tattered striped pants and a baseball cap, while a beautiful woman passes by nonchalantly holding a parasol and each character seeming to be oblivious to one another. In the center panel, another woman whose voluptuous curves are shown off in her white polka dot dress and elegant necklace walks her little dog and is greeted by a gallant gentleman tipping his hat to her. In the right panel, a grand, aproned nanny is taking an enormous child out for a daily stroll in a baby carriage while in the lower corner a plump dog squats facing forward, alone in his awareness of the viewer, and in the upper corner a man’s small head appears looking out a window intrigued by all the goings on in The Street. In another drawing of striking fascination, Portrait of Velasquez, Fernando Botero carries on his long established tradition of creating in his inimitable style portraits of artists he admires. In this full length portrait Velasquez is seen as a courtly gentleman holding a brush in his right hand and a palette in his left. The drawing rendered in rich, deep charcoal conveys the elegance of the artist’s clothes and with touches of sanguine in the sashes of the artist’s pantaloons and in the cross emblazoned on the front of his waist coat, charm and delicacy are added to Fernando Botero’s monumental interpretation. All the drawings in this exhibition bear witness to an inventive imagination and a phenomenal draftsmanship both in the artist’s facility to draw any subject he chooses and in the wide range and variations of effects that his drawing skills can achieve. Fernando Botero’s drawings can be dramatic and monumental as in the case of many of the works in this show and also as in other drawings, graceful and expressive of the most refined lyricism. There is no question that, generally speaking, behind every great artist lies a great draftsman. This drawing exhibition demonstrates beyond any doubt the accomplished mastery of a great artist.
Fernando Botero’s work is distinctly his own and highly original. His art strikes a universal human chord that goes beyond regional tastes and temporal values and reaches a fundamental feeling in people all over the world. There is, perhaps, no other living artist who has so many admirers and collectors. His work is sought-after as much in the United States, South America, and Europe as it is in South Africa, Asia, and Australia. Asia Pacific Sculpture News attributed this phenomenon to “a vision of humanity that transcends the boundaries of cultural specificity, a vision of humanity that pulsates to the ancient universal rhythms of life.”
Fernando Botero has had innumerable one-man exhibitions. In the last five years alone he has had over thirty exhibitions worldwide devoted solely to his work. Among the most prominent museum exhibitions are the following: Forte de Belvedere, Florence, Italy (1991); Kunst Haus, Vienna, Austria (1992); Grand Palais, Paris, France (1992); Palais des Papes, Avignon, France; Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia; Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (1992-93); Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland (1994); The Chicago Cultural Center, Illinois (1994); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1994); Shinjuku Mitsukoshi Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan (1995); The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1996). He has had highly successful outdoor exhibitions of his monumental sculptures in Monaco, Paris, New York, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Fernando Botero’s work can be found in forty-six museums. Among the most prominent are: The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas, Venezuela; Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogota, Colombia; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany; Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany; and The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Many books have been published on Botero’s work in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese and Japanese.
A fully illustrated catalog of the Fernando Botero show is available.
MARLBOROUGH GALLERY
40 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019
www.marlboroughgallery.com
