Luis Carlos Rodriguez Original Oil Nude 1968 — Botero Meets de Kooning For Sale

Where Botero Meets de Kooning — Luis Carlos Rodriguez, Female Nude, 1968

There are paintings that sit comfortably within a tradition, and there are paintings that refuse to. This is the latter. A full, voluptuous female figure — rendered from behind with absolute anatomical confidence — occupies the foreground while an explosive abstract field of fiery orange, smoldering red, and cool turquoise erupts behind her. The figure is Botero. The background is de Kooning. The combination is entirely, unmistakably Rodriguez — and it is unlike anything else he ever painted.

Oil on canvas mounted to board by the artist, 1968. Signed in full by the artist. Acquired from a distinguished private collection in Coconut Grove, Florida.

About Luis Carlos Rodriguez

Rodriguez is a Colombian artist trained in the academic figurative tradition, with additional study in Mexico where exposure to post-revolutionary muralism and the broader currents of Latin American modernism shaped his painterly sensibility. His work is recognized for its disciplined draftsmanship, volumetric treatment of the human form, and expressive handling of paint — qualities that place him firmly within the great tradition of Latin American figurative painting that runs from Diego Rivera through Fernando Botero.

But this painting reveals another dimension entirely. The abstract color field that surrounds and almost engulfs the figure speaks to a painter who was watching what was happening in New York in the 1960s — the gestural freedom of Abstract Expressionism, the raw emotional force of de Kooning\'s Woman series — and absorbing it without abandoning his Latin figurative roots. The result is a work of genuine originality that sits at the intersection of two of the most powerful artistic currents of the 20th century.

1968 was not an ordinary year. Student revolutions in Paris and Mexico City, seismic cultural upheaval across the Americas — and in the middle of it all, a Colombian painter producing a work that feels charged with exactly that energy. This painting is a document of a moment as much as it is a work of art.

The Collection It Came From

This painting was acquired in the 1990s from the estate of a serious and sophisticated private collector in Coconut Grove, Florida — one of the most culturally vibrant and artistically significant communities in the American South. The collection included works by Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Joan Miró, alongside exceptional pieces by notable South American artists.

This was not a collector who acquired carelessly. This was someone with a highly cultivated eye and the means to own virtually anything — and they chose this painting. That choice speaks for itself.

This Painting

• Medium: Oil on canvas mounted to board by the artist
• Date: 1968
• Dimensions: Approximately 15 × 30 inches
• Style: Latin American figurative modernism with Abstract Expressionist influence
• Condition: Very good overall — surface visually strong with no noted structural issues. Age-appropriate characteristics consistent with a nearly 60-year-old work.
• Signed: Yes — signed in full, lower right: \"Luis Carlos Rodriguez\"
• Framed: No — presented unframed, allowing the full edge-to-edge composition to be appreciated

The rear view is a deliberate and daring compositional choice — it removes the face entirely and forces the viewer to engage with pure form, movement, and the charged relationship between figure and field. This is not a study. This is a statement.

Shipping

Given the value of this work, all shipments are handled at the premium level only — custom-built protective crating inside a reinforced outer box, fully insured and requiring a signature upon delivery.

Local pickup available in Orlando or Miami, FL — please message us before purchasing to arrange.

Buy with Confidence

• 100% Original — this is the actual painting pictured. What you see is what you receive.
• Provenance: distinguished private collection, Coconut Grove, Florida
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