This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Josefa Joya-Baldovino confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

ABOUT THE WORK

Joya is concerned with stippled fields of color defined by carefully articulated boundaries. This painting marks a transitional phase in the development of the style, from an exploding kind of composition to containment of forms within pictorial space. The almost austere geometric organic abstractions have more of a compositional allover look utterly different from the Jackson Pollock-New York school ethos where he once put the Philippines in the world map. In this oeuvre entitled Prelude to Violence, Joya alludes carefully constructs a message within its delineated forms. Here, his use of space and color maps out the red as a continually flowing surface towards his more contrasting and contained elements. It is this sense of space that gives this work an ominous and engaging aesthetic. Starting in 1977, the artist worked in a series of paintings using acrylic paint on plywood and developing the sponge technique. His paintings of this space suggest the precious and the elusive. With their rhythmic transparent planes, they enter into the realm of illusion and the tonal ambiguities of complex mental states. The painting marks a transitional phase in the development of the artist’s style, from an exploding kind of composition to confinement of forms within the pictorial space. He tried his hand at collages, using straw paper with its rich, grainy textures and mellow translucencies, cutting it into round shapes which he formed into attractive clusters, reminiscent of flagstones in some Japanese temple garden. He liked this venture into collage work so much that he has been at it ever since.