Provenance: Gift from the artist to Rod Paras-Perez, thence by descent

ABOUT THE WORK

Many of Abueva’s subject matter is a reclarification of recurrent sculptural motifs, but he has a warm blooded predisposition towards the bird symbols of Brancusi. A number of aspects emerge from his work, the purely figurative, the fantastic, the constructional, the stylized, the abstract, and the functional. One important element in Abueva’s work is his consistent interest in the functional side of sculpture. However, before a bench by Abueva is a usable piece of furniture, it is, first and above all, a piece of sculpture. As he says, “I work on functional objects on the basis of sculptural problems, rather than utilitarian objectives, as diversions from pure sculpture.” His benches and seats constitute a whole story in themselves. They come in all forms.