On September 13, 2023 the world lost a well known and well loved artist from Columbia named Fernando Botero.
Fernando Botero in Tuscany Photo Credit Gabriel Bouys AFP
Botero depicted politicians, animals, saints, and scenes from his childhood in an inflated and colorful way that was instantly recognizable. His paintings were exhibited in leading museums, while his bronze sculptures can be found in European and Latin American capitals.
With a pinch of irony and ingenuity, in each of his paintings, Botero explodes shapes, thighs, arms, and cheeks.
Characters swell, dresses swell, instruments lose their sense of proportion. Botero seduces with the shimmering colors and the playful, oversized shapes of his works. He insisted that he never painted fat people, saying he wished simply to glorify the sensuality of life.
The Street by Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero “La Ballerina” (Dancers at the Bar 2001)
Picnic, 2001 by Fernando Bolero
His painting “The Musicians” (1979) was sold for a record USD $2.03 million at an auction in New York in 2006, confirming him as Latin Americas most sought after artist.
Botero’s sculpture of a cat shown in BarcelonaReclining Woman in Cartagena by Fernando Botero
Blown Glass by Lino Tagliapietra Courtesy of Heller Gallery
Mandara, 2005 by Lino Tagliapietra
Born in 1934 on the island of Murano, neighboring Venice in the Venetian Lagoon, Lino Tagliapietra started working as an apprentice at the island’s glass furnaces and factories at age 11.
He was soon regarded as a Maestro – master glass blower in his early twenties. During the 1960’s Lino started expressing his own forms of creativity through the design and execution of models with high technical and aesthetic quality, which earned him commercial success.
Angel Tear, Blown Glass by Lino Tagliapietra, 2011
Since 1990 Lino has become a free practicing artist of glass without any contractual binds or obligations, and he is now fully dedicated to creating his unique pieces that are present in some of the most prestigious museums throughout the world, including the De Young Museum of San Franscisco, the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, as well as numerous galleries and private collections.
In 1979, Lino visited Seattle for the first time and introduced students at the Pilchuck School to the traditions of Venetian glassblowing. This cross-cultural collaboration helped shape the identity of American glassblowing and offered Lino an opportunity to expand his horizons internationally.
Described as having impeccable craftsmanship, a strong work ethic, and a talent for ingenuity, Tagliapietra’s pieces are beautiful, very creative and very inventive.
Now in his 80s, with over 70 years of experience, the Maestro splits his time between Murano and Seattle. He continues to exercise his prodigious technical skill and creative experimentation, producing works that both inspire and amaze.
Borboleta, 2011 by Lino Tagiapietra Photo by Francesco Allegretto
“As If It Were Already Here” sculpture for Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway by Janet Echelman
Making sculpture to visually knit together the fabric of the city Janet Echelman’s art is made by hand-splicing rope and knotting polyester twine into an interconnected mesh with more than a half-million nodes. Monumental in scale and strength, yet delicate as lace, her sculpture responds to ever-changing wind and weather. The sculpture is completely soft and constructed from highly technical fibers that are 15 times stronger than steel yet incredibly lightweight and resilient. By day the artwork blends with the sky. At night colored lighting transforms the work into a floating, luminous beacon.
Night shot of “As If It Were Already Here” sculpture by Janet Echelman
The artwork incorporates dynamic light elements which reflect the changing effects of wind. Sensors around the installation register fiber movement and tension and direct the color of the lights projected onto the sculpture’s surface.
Asked to express the spirit of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s work and mission in a sculpture, and to create a heart for their new global campus in downtown Seattle, Janet Echelman created “Impatient Optimist.”
“Impatient Optimist” Seattle, 2015 by Janet Echelman
Night shot of “Impatient Optimist”, Seattle 2015. Sculpture by Janet Echelman
“1.26” is a travelling sculpture about the interconnectedness of our world. It has been installed in 5 cities and 4 continents. Originally commissioned in 2010 for Denver, CO it then traveled to Sydney Australia in 2011, then in Amsterdam in 2013 and on to Singapore in 2014. Shown below in Montreal.
“1.26” sculpture by Janet Echelman
It takes a crew of construction workers and structural engineers plus the cooperation of host city to install one of Echelman’s creations. Here’s a time-lapse video of the Boston installation:”
Boston installation rising above the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) is a museum in a converted factory building located in North Adams, Massachusetts. Opening in 1999 with 19 galleries it has grown to be one of the largest centers for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States.
The newest building on the Mass MoCA campus, constructed over the abandoned foundation, is unlike any other at Mass MoCA. While the factory buildings are noted for their vast windows and side lighting, the new building has none. Instead it is illuminated from above by skylights with UV filters. The space is also unique for its concrete floor. The architectural impact is minimalist and industrial.
The interior space has three configurations all by a German artist named Anselm Kiefer. The art is on a 15-year loan from megacollector Andrew Hall and his wife, Christine. The Hall Art Foundation paid some $2 to $3 million to realize the project.
There is a free standing wall dividing the galleries as you enter on the left. The first long, narrow area displays “Etroits sont les viasseaux” (Narrow are the Vessels), an 82-foot-long wave-like structure of concrete and rebar.
Anselm Kiefer, Étroits sont les Vaisseaux (Narrow are the Vessels,) 2002
Narrow are the Vessels is expected to age in place, to deteriorate over time. Bits and pieces are expected to fall off the piece as time goes on, and in fact little bits of dust and debris are already in evidence on the floor under the undulating concrete slabs, simply from the piece having been moved around its new site. Mass MoCA’s director, Joseph Thompson, calls Kiefer’s art “biodegradable” since even his paintings will develop cracks and fissures meant to deepen the texture of the works.
The next gallery with identical dimensions on the other side has a series of 20 beds covered with crinkled, distressed lead sheets and hollowed-out centers with water and/or assorted solids which comprise “Les Femmes de la revolution (The Women of the Revolution).”
Les Femmes de la revolution (The Women of the Revolution) by Anselm Kiefer
Many museum visitors will be daunted by the unattractive visual aspect of this work. There is brutal beauty if you are willing to be embraced by the poetic irony. Each bed is meant to honor a heroine of the French Revolution.
The remaining half of the building contains a prefabricated metal pavilion with a grid of 30 large scale paintings comprising “Velimir Chlebnikov.” There are fragments of hand written text as well as attached lead models of vessels and submarines. The work is based on the Russian poet and futurist Chlebnikov (1885-1922), who used a complex system of mathematical calculation, to deduce that there are naval battles every 317 years.
Overview of “Velimir Chlebnikov” Courtesy of MASS MoCA
Anselm Kiefer, close up of Velimir Chlebnikov, 2004, steel pavilion containing 30 paintings each made of mixed mediums including dirt, lead, straw to give the 3-D effect of a rolling, angry sea.
The collaboration with the Hall Art Foundation comes with complete transparency and no strings attached. This new project represents a special relationship with private collectors and their foundation.
“The building, the construction, the new road and gate — all of that is 100 percent paid for by the Hall Art Foundation. They are paying 100 percent of the operating costs — the utilities, electricity, security and all the other things,” Thompson said. “Mass MoCA does the ticket taking, the educational docents and provides all the other museological infrastructure. There is no pretense that this art is going to come to Mass MoCA. It all belongs to the Hall Art Foundation. If, at the end of the 15-year agreement, they choose not to renew it, the art will go back to the foundation and we’ll keep the building and the improvements.”
Mass MoCA, by mandate, does not collect. This allows for great flexibility as the galleries constantly rotate giving it the ability to refresh and update itself. It promises to be a cutting edge institution for generations to come. In that regard, arguably, it is the world’s most interesting contemporary art museum.
The Montréal Botanical Garden has been offering its millions of visitors an unforgettable experience for over 80 years. This summer The International Mosaiculture event is back after a ten-year absence on view at the Botanical Garden from June 22 to September 29, 2013.
This incredible display of two and three-dimensional constructions, cultivated by 200 international horticultural artists originating from more than 20 countries, makes it the largest eco-responsible event to come to Quebec.
Mosaiculture is a multifaceted discipline, drawing on a range of craftsmanship and knowledge — sculpture for the framework, painting for chroma, and ecology, for the understanding of the maintenance of the floral medium. This year’s event challenged the artists around the theme ‘land of hope’ as it reflects their own culture, drawing influences from icons of peace and promise for a environmentally sound world. Collectively, over three million colorful flowers and plants were used in the environmental designs, creating a colossal body of living vibrant art.
In 2012 Paris-born Lisbon-based artist Joana Vasconcelos took over the Palace of Versailles in France with her large sculptural works as part of the Chateau’s annual contemporary art exhibition.
The south end of the palace’s Hall of Mirrors, where ceremonies and important events in the history of France were staged, hosts “Marilyn 2011”, a pair of high-heeled sandals constructed from the repeated arrangement of stainless steel pans and lids. The mammoth-scale high heels, standing within this vast hall, creates a Gulliver effect, and are an ode to women’s achievements both on public and private spheres.
Marilyn 2011 by Joana Vasconcelos
Pans and Shoes. Photo by Sherila Tony/Flickr.com
A Bell 47 helicopter decorated with ostrich feathers by Joana Vasconcelos
This Bell 47 helicopter has been decorated in the same vein as Versaille’s aesthetic universe, covered in gold leaf with thousands of rhinestones embedded on its exterior. The cockpit and blades seem to have been invaded by an extravagant and colorful coat of ostrich feathers that have been dyed in hues of salmon, pink and orange. Truly a time-machine to transports the queen into our current day.
In the Galarie des Batailles is an installation of handmade woolen crochet, industrial knitted fabric, fabrics, ornaments, polyester, and steel cables called “Royal Valkyrie”
On the morning of October 6, 1789, the revolutionary crowd invaded the Salle des Gardes de la Reine at Versailles. Prior to being struck down, one of the guards managed to crack the antechamber’s door open and shout ‘Sauvez la Reine!’ (“Save the Queen!”)
Joana Vasconcelos created these two lions entrapped in crocheted lace and placed them in the same Salle des Gardes de la Reine at Versailles to tell us about power by artfully manipulating opposites – masculine/feminine; power/subservience; strength/fragility; robustness/delicacy; imprisonment/protection. They force the collapse of gender inequality and comes forth as the loyal keeper of women’s accomplishments.
Crocheted Lions created by artist Joana Vasconcelos
I am a big fan of colorful, abstract sculpture and some of the best is being created by Mexican and South American artists. Here are two examples of public metal sculpture by Columbian Artists Lina and Gus Ocamposilva. To see more of their work go to http://ocamposilva.com
“Floralis Generica” in Buenos Aires by Argentina artist T. Ozonas is shown below:
Photo Credit: Masterfile
Mexican artist Sebastian (Enrique Carbajal Gonzalez) is represented with these two interesting sculptures:
“La Torre del Caballito” Credit: Rick Gerharter Lonely Planet/Getty Images
“La Puerta de Chihuahua” Photo Credit: Corbis
And just one more example from Chile of a metal sculpture celebrating the annual music festival held at Frutillar on the shores of Lago Llanquihue:
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