Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

Modern sculptural interpretations of the mother and child theme. Considering the numerous Philippine Madonna painted in their totality and variety, one is tempted to posit a mother syndrome operating in the psyches of Filipino artists. Thus the artist reduces the clothed female form into its most elemental. The monotony of verticality is broken by the facial features, and the lines of the outfit. The artist’s concern is to show the pensive, reflective form of a mother in its simplest physicality. His highly personal approach to sculpture marked by intensity and sheer bravura gave impetus to beginning sculptors to pursuit their own sculptural idioms. He was once quoted: “Since the day I decided to be a serious artist, I have experimented, refined and mastered a lot of methodologies and techniques. I knew then that if I continued doing what I have already mastered, I can live life through with great commercial success. But I am a native of knowledge and am always inquest of learning new avenues of experiences, be it in concept, ideas or techniques. I will always strive for new techniques and maybe sometime, incorporate them all.” The bravura, does not build around the graceful lines of mother cradling son but rather conveys in the abstracted figures a sense of rapture, sharply evoking the feeling of dignity.