Paris

Studie Johnson

1972

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Wrapped Bridge, Project for the Pont Alexandre III, Christo, lithograph with collage
#3 Birmingham, Alabama, Robert Frank, gelatin silver print mounted to panel
Black and white image of a room within which are visible a chair, a door, against which is propped an ironing board, and a dresser atop which are perfume bottles and a framed headshot of a woman. Upon the room's walls and ceiling is the upside-down image of the surrounding neighborhood, created by the artist by turning the room into a camera obscura.
The object is an oversized bronze sculpture of a reclining, longhaired female nude with an up-turned face. The figure rests on a fabric which drapes over a twelve-inch high base. The surface has a warm brown patina. The whole sculpture currently rests on base that raises it 21 inches off the ground. In this sculpture, Botero reinterpreted the odalisque, merging characteristics of primitive fertility goddesses with the voluptuous women of Rubens, Renoir, or Titian. Botero concentrates the heft in his figures at their center to attain the highest degree of volumetric expression and linear precision. His figures have been dubbed "Boteromorphs." Botero's art reflect the culture of his native Medellín, where pre-Columbian aesthetic traditions intermingle with the lingering influence of medieval Spanish Catholicism. Botero has also absorbed the influences of Diego Rivera, Henri Matisse, and others.