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Posts Tagged ‘portrait’

Spotlight: Colombian Artist Fernando Botero

Tuesday, December 27th, 2022
Colombian artist Fernando Botero with his painting 'After Velazquez' at the Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 3, 2010.  Credit: © Prometheus72/Shutterstock

Colombian artist Fernando Botero with his painting ‘After Velazquez’ at the Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 3, 2010.
Credit: © Prometheus72/Shutterstock

Copy the Mona Lisa, but make her twelve years old and comically disproportionate! Political, original, and always interesting, Colombian artist Fernando Botero’s pieces capture attention around the world. Botero is known for his paintings and sculptures. Round figures with comparatively small faces define his work. Botero features satirical portrayals of powerful subjects. Satire is the use of wit to attack human conduct or institutions. Satire is used in literature and art to expose and even reform such human failings as folly, greed, or vanity. His style, known as Boterismo, shows figures of exaggerated volume with bright colors. Botero paints and sculpts animals, people, and still-life scenes of food. Still-life paintings are close-ups of objects.

'Horse Man' sculpture by Colombian artist Fernando Botero in Botero Square in Medellín, Colombia. Credit: © Oscar Espinosa, Shutterstock

‘Horse Man’ sculpture by Colombian artist Fernando Botero in Botero Square in Medellín, Colombia.
Credit: © Oscar Espinosa, Shutterstock

Botero was born in Medellín, Colombia, on April 19, 1932. His father died when he was four years old. Botero began drawing and painting in watercolors at a young age. An uncle enrolled him in a training school for bullfighting when he was 12 years old. A man who sold tickets to bullfighting began selling Botero’s drawings and paintings. At the age of 16, Botero’s first illustrations were published in El Colombiano, a newspaper in Medellín. When Botero was 20 years old, he won second prize at Bogotá’s Salón Nacional de Artistas exhibition. He then traveled to Europe to study art.

Botero studied the paintings of the Old Masters of European art in Madrid, Spain; Paris, France; and Florence, Italy. After he returned to Colombia, he entered the Biblioteca Nacional exhibition in 1955, where his art was not well received. Botero moved to Mexico City in 1956. In 1960, he won the Colombian section of the Guggenheim international exhibition. That same year, he moved to New York City. In 1961, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City bought his painting Mona Lisa, Age 12, a tribute to the Old Masters.

In 1973, Botero moved to Paris, France. While in Paris, he began sculpting figures from his paintings. Museums and galleries around the world featured Botero’s work as his popularity grew. Botero’s bronze sculptures are displayed in public spaces in Colombia, France, Israel, Spain, and the United States. Botero addressed the subject of the Colombian drug cartel in Masacre de Mejor Esquina (1997) and Death of Pablo Escobar (1999). He addressed the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American personnel in Abu Ghraib prison in a collection called Abu Ghraib (2005).

Tags: art, colombia, fernando botero, paintings, portrait, satire, sculptures
Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Current Events | Comments Off

Portraits of Greatness: Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald

Thursday, June 11th, 2020
Former United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama (both center) pose next to their portraits at their unveiling at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Barack's portrait was painted by Kehinde Wiley (far left). Michelle's was painted by Amy Sherald (far right). Credit: © Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images

Former United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama (both center) pose next to their portraits at their unveiling at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Barack’s portrait was painted by Kehinde Wiley (far left). Michelle’s was painted by Amy Sherald (far right).
Credit: © Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images

Today, World Book celebrates two African American artists who gained wider fame when they were chosen to paint official portraits of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Kehinde Wiley painted the portrait of Barack Obama. Amy Sherald painted the portrait of Michelle. Both portraits now hang in the Smithsonian Institution‘s National Portrait Gallery.

Credit: President Barack Obama (2018); oil on canvas by Kehinde Wiley; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (© Kehinde Wiley)

Credit: President Barack Obama (2018); oil on canvas by Kehinde Wiley; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (© Kehinde Wiley)

Kehinde Wiley is known for his large, brightly colored portraits. His style has been called urban Baroque, a reference to the Baroque art movement of the 1500’s and 1600’s. Baroque art is large in scale and filled with dramatic details. Wiley became the first African American artist to paint an official presidential portrait.

Wiley served as artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York City from 2001 to 2002. It was in Harlem that Wiley developed his unique approach to portraiture. He approached strangers on the street, asking them to pose for him. He photographed the subjects in their street clothes and then painted them in a classical European style. Wiley continued this process in such places as Morocco, Haiti, and India. Wiley’s signature background depicts flowers and foliage or abstract shapes. The bright, detailed backgrounds are reminiscent of the Baroque style.

Credit: First Lady Michelle Obama (2018), oil on linen by Amy Sherald; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (© Amy Sherald)

Credit: First Lady Michelle Obama (2018), oil on linen by Amy Sherald; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (© Amy Sherald)

Amy Sherald is also known for her paintings of African Americans, particularly for her use of grayscale in these paintings. Grayscale images consist exclusively of shades of gray. Sherald’s use of grayscale undercuts traditional notions about skin tone. Her paintings also feature bright accent colors and graphic patterns.

Sherald began specializing in painting African Americans during her graduate studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She believed that African American subjects had been underrepresented in the art world. In 2016, Sherald won first prize in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

Tags: african americans, amy sherald, barack obama, kehinde wiley, michelle obama, national portrait gallery, portrait
Posted in Arts & Entertainment, People | Comments Off

New Face for British Coins

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015

March 3, 2015

At a ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery in London yesterday, a new portrait of Elizabeth II, the queen of the United Kingdom, was unveiled. The portrait will be used on the front (obverse) side of coins struck by the Royal Mint. The portrait’s artist, Jody Clark, is the first Royal Mint worker in more than 100 years to have an image, known as an effigy, selected to be struck on British coins.

A 2015 £1 coin bearing the fifth definitive coin portrait of Her Majesty The QueenCredit: The Royal Mint

A 2015 £1 coin bearing the fifth definitive coin portrait of Queen Elizabeth II  (Credit: The Royal Mint)

This portrait is the fifth to be created for Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952. The first effigy, by sculptor Mary Gillick, was struck in 1953, the year of Elizabeth’s coronation. It shows a very young queen wearing a laurel wreath. This is the only earlier portrait of the queen that is still used on coins today, as this image is used on Maundy money (money distributed by the queen on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday). The most recent portrait shows a mature queen wearing the diamond diadem (crown) she wore at her coronation and a small smile.

Other World Book articles: 

  • Mint
  • United Kingdom
  • United Kingdom (1952-a Back in time article)
  • United Kingdom (1953-a Back in time article)

Tags: elizabeth II, portrait, royal mint
Posted in Current Events, Government & Politics, History | Comments Off

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