Style Imitating Art | “Four Women” by Fernando Botero

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was my turn and I had nothing particular in mind to share. So I went a-Googling and discovered the exaggerated forms of Fernando Botero which made me start a-Giggling and so there you have it. I chose this specific painting because the figures of the four women in various colors and styles of dress offer lots of sartorial inspiration. I have no idea why the woman in the green dress is exposing her left nipple, but that makes me laugh, too! She’s a sassy thing. I like her.

The Artwork

“Four Women” by Fernando Botero

About the Artist: Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero was born on April 19, 1932, in Medellín, Colombia, to David Botero and Flora Angulo. His father was a salesman who traveled by horseback and died suddenly at the age of 40 when Fernando was just 4 years old. Left destitute in the wake of her husband’s death in 1936, Fernando’s mother began working as a seamstress to support her three young sons.

Fernando enjoyed drawing and painting in watercolors as a young child. But in 1944, when Fernando was 12 years old, an uncle stepped in to assist the family and enrolled his nephew in a training school for bullfighters. While in bullfighter school, Fernando took more interest in drawing and painting bulls than he did in fighting them. His first works were paintings of bulls and matadors which were sold by a man who traded bullfighting tickets.

In 1948, at the age of 16, Fernando had some of his illustrations published in one of the most important Medellín newspapers. Three years later, he had a solo exhibition of his works in Bogotá. After winning second prize in Bogotá’s Salón Nacional de Artistas, 20 year old Botero traveled to Europe with a group of fellow artists. He spent a year in Madrid copying the Old Masters then moved to Paris followed by Florence, where he studied the Masters of the Italian Renaissance. For periods of time during his younger years, Botero was enrolled in various art schools but he always considered himself to be primarily self taught.

Inspired by Mexican muralists and Spanish Masters like Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris, Botero had his artistic breakthrough moment experimenting with the construction of a mandolin which took on exaggerated proportions when he painted the instrument with an unusually tiny sound hole. This was the beginning of his lifelong exploration of volume in his works.

Botero’s works are recognized internationally for his singular style of rotundity in his figures and forms. They take on a whimsical tone and often have a subtle bit of satire incorporated in them. Adamant that he did not paint “fat people”, Botero insisted that his works explored volume and the “sensuality of form”.

Throughout his life, Botero was an avid art collector himself, curating a personal collection of works by 19th and 20th century European Masters. Between 1990 and 2000, he donated more than 300 works from his personal collection as well as his some of his own paintings to various museums.

His sculptures, which also feature figures in exaggerated form, can be seen in highly visible public spaces around the world including his native Medellín, New York, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Jerusalem, Germany, and Armenia.

Botero was married to Greek sculptor and jewelry designer Sophia Vari for more than 40 years. He worked passionately on his art until his death at the age of 91 on September 15, 2023. He leaves behind a wide ranging body of artistic work that has made a monumental impact on art and culture around the world.

About the Art: “Four Women”

“Four Women” is a 1987 oil painting on canvas featuring four women sitting at a table in a club or a bar as indicated by the drinks in their hands and the empty bottles on the floor. The four female figures are painted in Botero’s signature style of exaggerated forms which gives comic quality to these ladies out on the town. With one woman’s breast exposed and the other women looking rather disappointed, it seems that Botero is making a satirical comment about our sexual morality and human dating rituals. And I am here for it.

Unfortunately, I am unable to find any other information about this painting like its size, location, or provenance.

References/Resources:

• Fernando Botero: Wikipedia
• Four Women: Wikiart
• Fernando Botero: Britannica
• Fernando Botero, Colombian artist famous for rotund and oversize figures, dies at 91
• 10 things to know about Fernando Botero

About My Outfit

I had so much fun creating this outfit and I absolutely love the colorful bohemian style that resulted. My first point of inspiration from the painting was the sassy lady in the green dress. Her dress is very similar in silhouette to this mint green knit dress. But I couldn’t wear the dress alone because it is sleeveless and still too cold for that business. So layers were a must. But that’s okay because layers is the way I incorporated some others colors and patterns from the painting.

My second points of inspiration were the lady in the yellow dress with red polka dots and the one in the red Swiss dotted dress with yellow ruffle. These two dresses inspired me to add my green and white polka dot dress-to-duster on top of the mint green dress.

Because yellow is a dominant color in the artwork and green is not, I wanted to add more yellow to be consistent with the art. Also I have been struggling to find a way to style this thrifted lace dress that is five sizes too big. I thought I could alter it to fit me but I am really afraid I will ruin the lace. Taking a note from Marsha’s Book of Beautiful Layering, I decided to add this dress as the first layer so it just peeks out the bottom like a pretty slip. I topped off the whole outfit with a very old thrifted yellow coat.

Once I had all these pieces in place, I felt like I was lacking enough red to accurately represent the colors in the painting. So I wore my red cowgirl boots and my new red hat from Knoxville, Tennessee. I accessorized with my joyful crocheted sunflower earrings, my colorful Kantha necklace from April Cornell, an old green floral scarf, fingerless mitts because my hands are always cold, and my purple Teddy Blake bag because that is what I have been carrying daily. There is no purple in the painting but there is purple in the embroidering on the yellow lace slip dress so it worked for me and this wildly colorful and wonderfully chaotic look.

And there you have it. How did I do?

Be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of this painting as well as Marsha’s.

If you want to be featured with your art inspired outfit in my gallery post on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, be sure to submit your photos to me at shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. 

Happy styling, my friends!

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee

Joining these Fabulous Link Parties.   

Outfit Details: Yellow Lace Slip Dress, Green Polka Dot Duster, Yellow Coat-Thrifted / Mint Green Dress-Kohl’s / Boots-Country Outfitter / Necklace-April Cornell / Earrings-Earthbound Trading Co. / Hat-Alice in Appalachia / Bag-Teddy Blake / Gloves-Gift Shop in Sylva, NC / Scarf-Old