PROPERTY FROM A VERY IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION

ABOUT THE WORK

An abstract visual language distinctly his, canvases with strikingly original interlocking shapes, and the use of various tonalities capturing the Philippine tropical lushness—all these bring National Artist H.R. Ocampo to mind. Ocampo’s emotionally charged abstraction pieces are profound results of his everyday observations in what surrounded him, from Philippine flora and fauna as well as animals to rain and sunshine. Television and bigscreen films also influenced his oeuvre, and it is noted by critics that the evolutions of his works correlated with his personal life. In his journal dated 1953, he noted his interest in “how shapes, hues, values, textures and lines interact with one another in space, rather than in capturing a photographic semblance of nature.” His art is far from merely decorative masterpieces and considered personal reactions to the stimuli of the times Movement in Color he lived in. He was also able to outline the periods of his art; this particular piece belongs to his Visual Melody Period (from 1968 onwards) when he “created pure painting, something akin to chamber music.” Here, his mastery of color—combinations of hues, tonal values, and textures—is organically displayed, providing one a total aesthetic experience. Ocampo is a pioneer of the Philippine Modernist movement along with the other Thirteen Moderns, one of the main names during the glory days of the Philippine Art Gallery, having won the first prize in the Art Association of the Philippines’ (AAP) influential competition in 1951 and 1969. Also called the Father of Philippine Modern Abstraction, Ocampo was in the august company of neo-realists such as Vicente Manansala, Cesar Legaspi, and Romeo Tabuena, among other celebrated modernists in the country