When Russel Meets Botero

Today i had a rendezvous with Russel Wong and Fernando Botero.

One is my day-shift boyfriend, the other taking the night-shift. Yea, in my dreams, haha.

One is a celebrity photographer(Russel Wong), the other is a Colombian artist cum sculptor(Fernando Botero), and I had the most wonderful time revelling in their works at art museum today.

Zhang Ziyi

James Ingram

"Dancers"

"Corrida"

"Over the Balcony"
***

Russel Wong does magic when it comes to portraits. His black and white portraits of famous people like Jackie Chan, Richard Gere, James Ingram etc are potent, capturing the momentous emotions of his subjects in the harsh contrast of light, and the lack of it.

" I am obsessed with light, not just the litting of it, but also the absence of it." (not the exact quote,trying to phrase it from memory)

Botero, on the other hand, is a widely acclaimed Colombian artist with his trademark subject matter. FAT everything. Forget slender women with porcelain-smooth skin, or Greek-god-lookalike men , u have FAT women, FAT men, FAT cat, with layers of excessive fleshiness that makes u think they are the answer to the current oil crisis. Not funny. My joke. But really funny are his works. He doesn't try to portray his subjects in artificial perfection; but rather, these figures in their quirky rotundness engaging in daily activities in Comlobian setting such as picnicking, bathing, riding a horse (did i mention the horse is FAT too? ) etc imbue a sense of light-hearted humour. Some paintings portray these people dancing and drinking merrily, painted in bold, bright colours. For once, i did not feel that i had to suck in my tummy while admiring a piece of artwork, haha. Some of his works had serious connotations too, and usually rendered in sombre colours, but I still couldn't help but be amused by the bulging, round figures. Botero needs to know ROUNDNESS just doesn't convey bleakness very well, hee.

Had the most wonderful time at a friend's housewarming party after that. Had never laughed so hard since a long time ago. Nothing can ever beat the fun of having dinner with old friends and talking random rubbish.

*Yawn* Really tired from all the walking and laughing. So shall stop here.