Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, USA

ABOUT THE WORK

One of the pioneering artists part of the Philippine Art Gallery (PAG), postwar Neo-Realists painter and printmaker Romeo Tabuena consistently honored the Philippines through his art. His works present radical stylistic shifts throughout the decades of his artistic practice, from his cubist style influenced by European Cubism and Chinese vertical paintings to his use of a prismatic color palette which he developed upon settling in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Tabuena took upon cultural themes, rural subjects such as farmers, candle vendors, street sweepers, and laundry women, and local imageries, depicting them in strong structural depth and dramatic colors. This early 1959 piece reveals his inclination toward using colors that provide drama and mood changes such as yellows, ochres, and browns. Vendors are in archetypal poses, preoccupied in their day’s work. It is also notable that this piece is dated in the year when Tabuena held a ten-year retrospective at the PAG in Manila.