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info@benrimon.com benrimon.com 212-628-1600 The Fuller Building 41 East 57th Street, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10022 © 2023, David Benrimon Fine ArtT ABLEOF C ONTENTS ABOUT THE ARTIST 5 PAINTINGS 7 NIÑO, 1993 8 CARNIVAL, 2016 10 DOS HERMANAS, 2018 12 SOCIETY WOMAN, 2003 14 THE SAINT, 2017 16 SCULPTURES 19 WOMAN ON A HORSE, 2015 20 SPHINX, CONCEIVED 1998 , CAST 2020 22 WOMAN ON HORSE, 2015 24 LEDA AND THE SWAN, 2006 26 WOMAN ON A HORSE, 2016 28 MATERNITY, 2006 30 WORKS ON PAPER 33 SOCIETY COUPLE, 2021 34 A FAMILY, 2022 35 MAN AND WOMAN, 2022 36 COUPLE WITH CHILD, 2023 37 WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, 2022 38 WOMAN WITH CHILD, 2022 39 GUITAR PLAYER, 2022 40 COUPLE WITH UMBRELLA, 2023 41 MUSICIANS, 2022 42 RIDER, 2023 43 MAN WITH GUITAR, 1997 44 MAN ON HORSE, 1980 45 UNTITLED (ST. GEORGE), 1983 46 HORSE, 1992 47 IN THE PARK , 2003 48Fernando Botero was born in 1932 in the heart of the Andes Mountains in Medellín, Colombia. As a child, Botero attended a school for matadors for several years, but recognized that his true passion was art. Botero traveled to Spain and France before settling down in Florence, where he repeatedly visited the Italian Quattrocento masters and discovered techniques from a bygone era. The old masters idolized plump women and men with curves since they signified health and wealth. He recognized the necessity of paying homage to his artistic forefathers and dedicated his practice to creating artwork featuring these body types while remaining relatable to contemporary norms. His large subjects became the centerpieces of all of his artwork and any accompanying environs were secondary. What makes a canonical artist is not only their unique vision, but also their ability to participate in the art historical conversation. This requires rigorous study of art history, observation of the canon and the ability to contribute to it. Botero developed his innovative dimension by infusing his art historical references with contemporary elements and themes from his everyday existence. He synthesizes his own artistic vision by combining the world of Colombia with the aesthetics of the Italian masters, thus creating a distinctive world of his own. His imagined universe is peopled with various characters from Medellín from bullfighters and dancers to street musicians and lovers. Concierto Campestre, a gorgeous oil painting from 2017, features a romantic moment between a lounging couple as the gentleman serenades his sophisticated partner. Botero playfully paints his large characters as approachable and intimate, despite their almost farcical appearance. Botero ABOUT THE ARTIST gives his viewers a unique view of these men and women, enclosing them in a sensual ambiance of joy and color. Botero first achieved international fame on the Champs- Elysees in Paris where he had a major, outdoor retrospective of some of his larger sculptures. It proved to be a huge success and garnered him international press and patronage. These rotund figures not only demonstrate Botero’s ability to portray individual Medellín characters from his life, but also to universalize the figures, allowing an international audience to identify with them and see their unusual elegance. His subjects portray a rare irony – the rounded stomachs and undefined limbs are hardly the first things associated with grace, yet his sculptures and paintings are striking and chic. Botero’s figures are both inviting and enchanting and the overwhelming “roundness” of his characters, whether sculpted in bronze, painted on canvas, or drawn on paper, has solidified him as a legend in the art historical canon. Botero’s beautiful, feminine women are relatable, even in their unconventional, stout portrayal. For example, the graceful and satirical sculpture, Ballerina, addresses the complex social forces at play for Botero. Ballerinas are typically associated with their agility, petite size and slimness. While this sculpture shows flexibility and poise, the ballerina has the shape of Botero’s characteristically rotund woman. Contemporary society continues to sanction emaciated women as the iconic figures of beauty, fashion and design. Botero, in turn, scoffs at new trends affecting the art world and continues to create his graceful, obese women and men, thereby challenging, if not mocking, popular Western culture. This is the sign of a living Master.PAINTINGSN iño , 1993 S anguineandcharcoaloncanvaS 51 1/2 hx 39 3/4 win . 130.81 hx 100.97 wcm . Youthfully outfitted in a striped sailor’s uniform, Fernando Botero’s Niño is an outstanding example of the artist’s signature style. Characteristically for Botero, this universal childhood experience is presented with a lightly sarcastic tone; “Botero’s world is peopled with a cast of characters who are generally absurd and a little pathetic, doing mostly very ordinary things. But there is a warmth of approach and a human sympathy which saves them from the ugly and once seen they are never forgotten” (Tracy Atkinson, Botero, Munich 1970, p. 3). Botero’s Niño depicts a small boy holding an orange up to his mouth, with pickup sticks and a ball at his feet. Botero’s often-silly and always-endearing characters such as Niño hold up a mirror to our own lives. In their stocky monumentality, they offer glimpses of our earnestness, sweetness, frailty and foolishness writ large.9Next >