Botero's influence

On Friday night, my wife and I made a trip to the Singapore Art Museum. Every Friday night, it seems, the Singapore Art Museum offers free entry to all from 6pm to 9pm. We went in with the intention to look at Russel Wong's exhibit of photographs. Instead, we joined a tour organised by the museum and were introduced to the world of Fernando Botero. We were awed by his unique style of drawing people and things in inflated forms (Some children present call it as drawing fat people and fat things.). However, the details of his painting are very small. Even his sculpture are in inflated forms. Something within us changed. May be we don't always have to paint a beautiful picture. May be looks don't matter that much. Isn't that what the current Mediacorp drama serial is trying to tell us too?
This morning, when my wife and I took a walk to the UOB plaza, we immediately recognized the sculpture of a fat bird near the Singapore river as Botero's work. We paid more attention to the many sculptures near the river. A sculpture outside the UOB building aptly summarised the effect of our experience at SAM. The sculpture, Homage to Newton by Salvador Dali showed Newton with an apple falling from his right hand. He has an open torso with a suspended heart and an open head. An open heart and an open mind.
P/S: If only I had gone down earlier. That would be a wonderful Fine Arts lesson for the pupils. The exhibition ends today.