Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Raul with Bust of Ruth Fernandez
Rigoberto Torres American, born Puerto Rico
Not on view
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.
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