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Lot Essay
Anita Magsaysay-Ho is widely acknowledged as the leading female painter in modern Philippine art. During her youth, she studied under the illustrious Fernando Amorsolo, master of the romantic realist tradition, and her earliest works reflect this tutelage of warm pastoralism and faithful portraiture. However it was during her experimentations with modernism during the 1950s that Magsaysay-Ho found her true artistic calling, blending localized genre scenes with an almost geometrical sense of modern figuration.
She was named one of the outstanding Filipino artists in 1958 and went on to be closely identified with the emerging school of Modernist art which challenged notions of conservative painting, and was the only woman to be named one of the Thirteen Moderns in Philippine art, which was a great honour.
Magsaysay-Ho found her true artistic calling in the 1950s and her works featured women at work using bold brushwork, strong contrasts of dark and light tones blending localised genre scenes with an almost geometrical sense of modern figuration. During the 60s, her brush strokes became more relaxed, with softer lines framing the figures she painted which became much more clearly articulated.
In the 1970s, she spent a lot of time away from the Philippines, and her family and she were even sworn in as Canadian citizens. Her works in this period are warm and nostalgic recollections of women at work imbued with a strong sense of her artistic identity and expression. The present lot is an excellent example of her work from this period.
Gathering Poinsettias which was executed in 1977 features three peasant women gathering poinsettia flowers and the women bear a solidity and strength that sets her figures apart from other genre scenes of the mid-20th century; yet still retain the warm affability and companionship synonymous with the pastoral Philippines. The women in the painting and their serene expressions afford the painting a quality of timelessness and transcendence. The delicately rendered foliage in the foreground, together with the warm green hues that permeate the entirety of the canvas suggests a sense of lightness and warmth and also showcases the best of the artist's use of bold, decisive lines and simplification of forms: triangular kerchiefs tied around angular faces yet its vivid colours and overall uplifting nature speaks of a joyous period within the artist's life.
Her paintings celebrating the modern Filipino women are not meant to convey sensuality but rather to depict national pride and the feminine spirit of the nurturing, hardworking Filipino women amongst whom Magsaysay-Ho was proud to count herself.
She was named one of the outstanding Filipino artists in 1958 and went on to be closely identified with the emerging school of Modernist art which challenged notions of conservative painting, and was the only woman to be named one of the Thirteen Moderns in Philippine art, which was a great honour.
Magsaysay-Ho found her true artistic calling in the 1950s and her works featured women at work using bold brushwork, strong contrasts of dark and light tones blending localised genre scenes with an almost geometrical sense of modern figuration. During the 60s, her brush strokes became more relaxed, with softer lines framing the figures she painted which became much more clearly articulated.
In the 1970s, she spent a lot of time away from the Philippines, and her family and she were even sworn in as Canadian citizens. Her works in this period are warm and nostalgic recollections of women at work imbued with a strong sense of her artistic identity and expression. The present lot is an excellent example of her work from this period.
Gathering Poinsettias which was executed in 1977 features three peasant women gathering poinsettia flowers and the women bear a solidity and strength that sets her figures apart from other genre scenes of the mid-20th century; yet still retain the warm affability and companionship synonymous with the pastoral Philippines. The women in the painting and their serene expressions afford the painting a quality of timelessness and transcendence. The delicately rendered foliage in the foreground, together with the warm green hues that permeate the entirety of the canvas suggests a sense of lightness and warmth and also showcases the best of the artist's use of bold, decisive lines and simplification of forms: triangular kerchiefs tied around angular faces yet its vivid colours and overall uplifting nature speaks of a joyous period within the artist's life.
Her paintings celebrating the modern Filipino women are not meant to convey sensuality but rather to depict national pride and the feminine spirit of the nurturing, hardworking Filipino women amongst whom Magsaysay-Ho was proud to count herself.