SCULPTURE

“My great passion for form brought about the need to transform the shapes of my painting into real, three-dimensional, tactile volumes,” said Botero, who always invited the public to touch his sculptures. It is no accident that Bernard Berenson, the legendary American art historian as well as one of the greatest experts on the Italian Renaissance, spoke of the “tactile values” of painting – and at just twenty years of age, Botero had the opportunity to attend Berenson’s conferences in Florence, a decisive event for his career. He began sculpting in the mid-1970s with small-scale works. His first model was his own hand. Every summer he went to Pietrasanta, Tuscany, a town with an extraordinary sculptural tradition and where there were seven foundries.