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Lot Essay
Homage to Turner is one of the most spectacular abstracts to emerge from Jose Joya's 1960s period. Monumental in size and visual impact, it is rare for not being inspired by Joya's usual themes, but created as an artistic tribute to English painter and watercolorist, J.M.W Turner. Turner was one of the greatest masters of landscape painting in Western art history, and is most celebrated as "the painter of light". He is also considered one of the earliest founders of abstract art, prior to its formal movement in the 20th century, significantly influencing artists such as Mark Rothko. His deeply moving and atmospheric paintings of Romantic maritime scenes take the form of dramatic seascapes awash in the heavenly glow of the rising or setting sun.
Within Homage to Turner , Joya recreates Turner's boundless horizon, with a flaming sunrise above a wide wash of ocean. The heavy impasto across the scarlet pictorial plane is characteristic of early Joya works, and creates visual complexity within a single color band. Textural detail in the lower half of the painting suggests rays of sunlight extending across the ocean waves, while the brief, swirling lines reference a Turner-esque device to evoke movement, or figures seen from a distance, in abbreviated forms so as not to affect the overall impact of the landscape. Joya redefines Turner's artistic legacy as abstract expression, distilling any remaining subjective elements into purely sensory impressions of light and gestural movement.
Jose T. Joya is widely considered to be one of the most accomplished modern abstractionists from the Philippines, with his gestural, Oriental-influenced compositions merging the best of Western and Eastern art traditions. Joya was born in 1931 and even in his youth, displayed a strong aptitude for drawing and art. During his high school years in Sampaloc, he received traditional art training derived from the Amorsolo school and frequently sketched his surrounding environments, such as the ruins and churches at Intramuros, or still lifes. Joya graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1953 with the distinction of being the university's first magna cum laude.
Among his numerous accolades, Joya won several prestigious art prizes and scholarships which funded exchange programs in Europe, including a one year grant to study painting in Madrid from the Spanish government's Instituto de Cultura Hispanica. Fernando Zobel, himself a formidable abstract artist now resident in Spain, was pivotal in influencing the travel-study grants to Madrid awarded to Joya and other young Philippine artists during the 1950s, such as Arturo Luz, Nena Saguil and Larry Tronco. Most significantly, Joya won a Fulbright-Smith Mundt scholarship which allowed him to embark upon his Master's degree at the Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, which Anita Magsaysay-Ho had attended before him. Like Magsaysay-Ho, the period which Joya spent in America proved to be foundational for his development in abstract expression.
During the 1950s and 60s, Joya continued to play an important role in the Philippine art scene. He was part of the 'new wave' of modern artists who exhibited at the important Philippine Art Gallery (PAG), featuring works such as Compositional Sketch No. 11 (Lot 165), a characteristic example of his late 50s visuals, and a member of the 'Saturday Group' collective. In 1962, he became the president of the Art Association of the Philippines, and with Napoleon Abueva, was selected to represent the Philippines at the Venice Biennale. He received grants from the John D. Rockefeller III Trust and the Ford Foundation to study at the Pratt Institute in New York in the late 1960s. Between 1970 to 1978, Joya became the Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, and in 1985, the Fernando Amorsolo Professorial Chair.
In 1981, a retrospective of around two hundred of Joya's works was held at the Museum of Philippine Art, including Signal Red (Lot 164). The French government awarded Joya the Order of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 1987 and he was posthumously conferred the National Artist award of the Philippines in 2003.
Within Homage to Turner , Joya recreates Turner's boundless horizon, with a flaming sunrise above a wide wash of ocean. The heavy impasto across the scarlet pictorial plane is characteristic of early Joya works, and creates visual complexity within a single color band. Textural detail in the lower half of the painting suggests rays of sunlight extending across the ocean waves, while the brief, swirling lines reference a Turner-esque device to evoke movement, or figures seen from a distance, in abbreviated forms so as not to affect the overall impact of the landscape. Joya redefines Turner's artistic legacy as abstract expression, distilling any remaining subjective elements into purely sensory impressions of light and gestural movement.
Jose T. Joya is widely considered to be one of the most accomplished modern abstractionists from the Philippines, with his gestural, Oriental-influenced compositions merging the best of Western and Eastern art traditions. Joya was born in 1931 and even in his youth, displayed a strong aptitude for drawing and art. During his high school years in Sampaloc, he received traditional art training derived from the Amorsolo school and frequently sketched his surrounding environments, such as the ruins and churches at Intramuros, or still lifes. Joya graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1953 with the distinction of being the university's first magna cum laude.
Among his numerous accolades, Joya won several prestigious art prizes and scholarships which funded exchange programs in Europe, including a one year grant to study painting in Madrid from the Spanish government's Instituto de Cultura Hispanica. Fernando Zobel, himself a formidable abstract artist now resident in Spain, was pivotal in influencing the travel-study grants to Madrid awarded to Joya and other young Philippine artists during the 1950s, such as Arturo Luz, Nena Saguil and Larry Tronco. Most significantly, Joya won a Fulbright-Smith Mundt scholarship which allowed him to embark upon his Master's degree at the Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, which Anita Magsaysay-Ho had attended before him. Like Magsaysay-Ho, the period which Joya spent in America proved to be foundational for his development in abstract expression.
During the 1950s and 60s, Joya continued to play an important role in the Philippine art scene. He was part of the 'new wave' of modern artists who exhibited at the important Philippine Art Gallery (PAG), featuring works such as Compositional Sketch No. 11 (Lot 165), a characteristic example of his late 50s visuals, and a member of the 'Saturday Group' collective. In 1962, he became the president of the Art Association of the Philippines, and with Napoleon Abueva, was selected to represent the Philippines at the Venice Biennale. He received grants from the John D. Rockefeller III Trust and the Ford Foundation to study at the Pratt Institute in New York in the late 1960s. Between 1970 to 1978, Joya became the Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, and in 1985, the Fernando Amorsolo Professorial Chair.
In 1981, a retrospective of around two hundred of Joya's works was held at the Museum of Philippine Art, including Signal Red (Lot 164). The French government awarded Joya the Order of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 1987 and he was posthumously conferred the National Artist award of the Philippines in 2003.