Provenance: Avellana Art Gallery Acquired from the above by the present owner

ABOUT THE WORK

Having encountered the Arte Informale movement while studying in Rome in the 1960’s, Concepcion was inspired by avant-garde Italian artists Mario Sironi, Ottone Rosai, and Giorgio Morandi. The works from this period are characterised by their limited use of colour and multifarious textures. Concepcion was part of a new generation of painters that emerged in the mid-sixties from the progressive post-war period. Reticent, he was nevertheless a respected academic and art educator, influencing artists such as Augusto Albor, Romulo Galicano and Lao Lian Ben. To Concepcion, the yellow spot is concrete physical presence and, when compounded in new planar arrangements, would engage its perceiver in an objective and analytical exercise. The sun hovers as a vague, round circle in the center of his paintings. It is Concepcions’ tribute to life since he affirms, “the sun is life.” This canvas thus presents the exacting nuances of two tints interplaying, although hardly contrasting since each tone is as subdued as the other. It is composed of crystalline strokes cum planes that hover ambiguously in a space that permeates even the figure. In the 1980’s, Concepcion liberated himself from the strictness of his earlier earth-bound chromatic range, exploring color harmonies via degrees of saturation and translucency, at the same time retaining his keen spatial composition — a journey that lasted until the end of his life. Despite the new fluency with chromaticity, this period retains the tranquility from his work in the ’60’s, reflecting the artist’s own measured personality. It is perhaps not too much to say that equanimity & peace are hallmarks of Concepcion’s work.