Raul with Bust of Ruth Fernandez
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.In this double portrait, the artist’s uncle Raúl Arce, who ran a statuary factory, reverentially cradles and displays a bust of the singer-politician Ruth Fernández (1919–2012), a celebrity in the Puerto Rican community. Torres seemingly chose to portray her in white marble, in the traditional sculptural portrait genre of the bust—a popular product of the factory—in acknowledgment of her cultural stature, with Raul rendered more informally. The two likenesses can be viewed as an ironic comment on the nature of modern realism as well as a paean to the role of the sculptor.
Artwork Details
- Title: Raul with Bust of Ruth Fernandez
- Artist: Rigoberto Torres (American, born Puerto Rico, Aguadilla 1960)
- Date: 1998
- Medium: acrylic on plaster
- Dimensions: 28 × 28 × 12 in., approx. 40 lb. (71.1 × 71.1 × 30.5 cm, approx. 18.1 kg)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Collection of El Museo del Barrio, New York. Gift of John Ahearn, 2014
- Rights and Reproduction: © Rigoberto Torres
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art