Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

The best Filipino art frankly acknowledged its provincial character. In depicting a nipa hut in a tree lined open field, Buenaventura is concerned with detail as much as how nature, light, space and movement can all be depicted in a concentrated composition on the flat surface of the canvas. The roots of naturalism can be found in a number of different movements. Buenaventura sought for a naturalism that reaches beyond appearances. He pursued intensely personal visions of nature. The poetry for which he yearned may have proven to be hard to find, and harder still to hold.