Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

Light enters the room through an unseen window on the left hand side and gently falls on the couple’s heads and arms. This work belongs to what is known as JorgeP ineda’s most colorful series of works: “Philippine Lanterns”, and features an old man and his wife who are busy at work creating ’parol.’ The subtle light brightens their kayumanggi skin; at the lower left, a festival of colors is created out of the papel de japon lying on the floor. It is a discreetly affectionate study of old age. The Pineda touch had a delightful comeliness. This may be attributed to a refusal on his part to make his work resemble the ponderous, sculpturesque types exalted by the academicians with a European Salon bias. Instead, Pineda chose to recreate vivid impressions of daily life with a disarming casualness, even if Emmanuel Torres wrote: “Beauty in dry, little things kindled his resourceful imagination in a special way. There is none of the glamorous sensuousness Amorsolo pursued all his life with a young mans’ heart: the gloss of things luscious, earth and women full of sweetness. The key to Pinedas’ art is the near lack of excitement over exuberant subject matter.” This huddle of the couple who are concentrating on their work has an unrehearsed air of a scene caught by the artist at the spur of the moment.