Adam & Eve

Francisco Botero is a Colombian painter and sculptor who depicts the people in his art in a heavier body type. The majority of his painting and sculptures are of bigger women and a lot of them are naked as well. One well known painting by Francisco Botero is called "Adam & Eve". In this painting you can see both a naked female and a male from the back, with their arms around each other. They seem to be in some sort of forest or garden standing before a tree. 

His paintings are controversial for the simple fact that they don't illustrate women and men in what the contemporary public would define as "beautiful". His characters contain the same physical flaws that all humans come to have at some point in their life: skin that isn't tight all around, stretch marks, cellulite, etc. Because of his esoteric portrayal of people, his paintings and works are well known worldwide. I chose this particular artist because I found it interesting how he chooses to create art from a complete contrast of what is considered "normal" or "appealing" in today's world, in regards to men and women. Women especially, are expected to embody and emulate the figures in magazines and movies. The reality of that though, is that the women in magazines and movies don't even look like that themselves. 

In an age where technology is rapidly evolving and there are more and more ways to edit images and pictures, women are displayed as seemingly flawless, tall, and thin. As discussed in my Women and Film Studies class this semester, women are often manipulated and made out to be covered and lustful. Almost anytime we see an image or ad of a woman, it has some sexual or sensual connotation that is explicitly implied, be it through stare, body language, or simple the angle of the image in question. They are styled and edited to fit a certain profile that somehow became the epitome of what ALL women should look like. 

I believe Botero portrays many of his women naked because it is still sexual although not perverse. It implies that women of different body types still possess that femininity and attraction that men seek although it may not fit the "norm". Another thing I found interesting about Botero's paintings is that the majority of the men he illustrates are NOT naked. Now, this may be because he is a male artist and prefers to create naked women. But, additionally, it is curious that the majority of the paintings and sculptures that he creates are women, and naked women at that. That is because "sex sells". Not only sex, but women conveying sex. 

Although his illustrations and artwork depict fatter, heavier, women, still he does not stray away from the profitable sexuality of the woman: the naked woman, the promiscuous woman. Regardless of the body type, the anatomy of the woman is still something that if manipulated correctly, can imply many things and appeal to a man's sexual desires without explicitly verbalizing it. This goes back to an article that Laura Mulvey published, titled "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" where she argues that the nature of the woman is purposely manipulated and arranged in film and cinema, especially by the Hollywood film industry, to appeal to a much larger audience, specifically men.