European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 26, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Want show wows City of Light parisians and tourists stroll past Bolero s statues alongside the champs Elysee. Parisians strolling Down champs Elysee for glimpse of Botero s sculptures by Awn Riding the new York times c Hildren climb ill Over them teen agers rub their round surfaces Blind people i mile to tool them tourists stand by them to be photographed and older parisians a imply look at them and smile. I lie Boive sculptures of Fernando Bolero it seems have taken Over Paris champs Elysee. The sculptures 1 i of them a Are mainly Bronze renditions of the proudly rotund men women children and animals who frequently appear in the colombian artist s better known drawings Square Les and paintings. So they Are immediately recognizable As b uterus. Yet the phenomenon of the first Ever show of sculptures along the champs ulysees has been the Public s reaction. Quot i be never seen anything like it Quot Lio Lero said still surprised by the response. People s laces Light up. They touch the pieces. It s like a sort of orgy of love and sensuality Ery Day sine e it opened on oct. 22, tin exhibition has been drawing huge i roads to the -100 Yard stretch of the Avenue Between the rond Point and the place de la concorde and in the chill of the evening people come to View the lighted sculptures trom the Comfort of skin moving cars. I never expert Ted Quot in h extraordinary Entla Isiam Quot said Didier Imbert who represents Bolero in France and who helped organize the show with the Paris City Hall. Quot people lire Happy its Art i hey can understand. Its warm. I lie Leel physically drawn by  i he sculptures in Lude Mam standing figures with familiar Bolero deformations Large legs and Small bodies but also voluptuous reclining nude s of women As Well As a naked woman standing on a Man s head the thought and a Man and a woman each standing on the reclining body of a woman and a Man respectively. Some pieces bring particular echoes of the colombian characters that people Many of Botero s paintings like the sturdy woman in her sunday Best with Little hat gloves and tiny handbag and the self assured Man in a suit and hat on horseback his legs As Large As those of the horse. A few sculptures seem to act Tike magnets. Hands have already worn the Gray Patina off the cigarette of the reclining woman smoking children climb Between the legs of a solitary squat horse. Passers by cannot control the urge to Pat the backside of one reclining nude. Everyone it seems wants to touch the Large cat which has lost its whiskers to some avid fan. In place until Jan. Athe t 1 sculptures Are part of a larger homage to Botero that includes a show of 20 smaller sculptures and 50 Aquarelle at the Didier Imbert Fine Art gallery and an exhibition of go paintings and 40 drawings around the theme of bullfighting at the grand palais through sunday. Bolero said that he began making sculptures in 1971 because he Felt it was a natural step from what he called his Quot voluminous three dimensional Quot paintings. Now go years old the Medellim born artist said that he still liked to take a break from painting to do sculptures for a Tew months every year. Botero wants to donate one of his Large sculptures to the City of Paris and he first thought of giving the in loot High Torso that stands in the Middle of the champs Fly sees at the rond Point Quot but there s an idea of holding a sort i referendum to see which one people like  he added i think that s a great has one statue overlooks traffic in the Middle of the champs to see Ulea. 14 stripes Magazine Rio Riiber 26, 1992 photos by Michael Abrams statues on display include a whisker less cat left. Woman and Mirror Quot from left a Spectator gets an up close look at a Torso and a roman Soldier stands in front of the grand palais. Nasym hts a 26, 1992 stripes Magazine 15