Provenance:
Acquired directly from the Artist by
Antolin M. Oreta and thence by descent

ABOUT THE WORK

This oil on canvas painting of the War Scene by Ramon A. Estella was done on site along Padre Faura when Manila was liberated in 1945. Estella, a student back then, was able to capture the aftermath of war-torn Manila - enervating the traumas of World War II yet capturing the allure of what remained of the glorious capital - a beauty inside a sad story. Ramon Estella first made a name for himself as a writer and director for film during the 1950s. Working together with Hernando Ocampo, Vicente Manansala, Cesar Legaspi, Romeo Tabuena and Victor Oteyza, he became a practitioner of expressionism and cubism and later developed a style characterized by bold lines and strident colors. Estella had always believed that this approach of painting “leads to a healthy movement, to a kind of art which allows the painter the same freedom in paint as music notes allow the composer -- not an imitation of nature but a personal interpretation.”