The Smoking Woman (Photo by PanArmenian.net)
These days at the Cascade , Colombian sculptor and painter Fernando Botero’s “Smoking Woman”statue was installed by the initiative “Cafeschyan” Art Center. It is made of black marble. This monumental work of Botero completed two series of statues “Cat “and” Roman soldier” placed in “Cafeschyan” sculptures garden.
Roman soldier
Cat
The sculpture provoked great interest of public. For many people in Yerevan, it all began with the Cat. Of course, it really began with renovations: the Cascade, at the heart of Yerevan, connects the city center to the elevated residential neighborhoods of the north.
The escalators, the escalator shaft, and the garden were all in sad shape, and the Cafesjian Museum Foundation, formed in 2002 as a public-private partnership, fixed them. Everyone had reason to be grateful. Then the Cat arrived. Soon the people got used to it and very quickly Fernando Botero’s Cat became a beloved landmark and attraction in Yerevan. Now as the “Smoking woman” arrived, there are two different opinions concerned to it. Some people can not adapt to it saying that it’s too vulgar and it doesn’t teach valuable things to all the adults, the rest thinks it’s a valuable work and has to be protected. Anyway the statue is to become a part of the face of our city. A number of statues are planned to be placed in “Cafeschyan” garden.
Cascade, Cafeschyan garden
Another Smoking Woman by the same author which was made of white marble was sold at the Christie’s at $1.6 million in 2007. Born in 1932 Fernando Botero, who works in figurative technique, has gained great popularity in 1959, when got the first prize at Colombia’s Artists exhibition. The sculptor calls himself “the most Columbian from all the Columbians”.
Famous sculptor claims he wants to influence people through his distinctive style of exaggerated and enlarged human proportions.
