PROPERTY FROM THE LEONARDO AND ARMIDA SIGUION-REYNA COLLECTION

ABOUT THE WORK

Known to his peers and colleagues as “Tony,” Antonio Garcia Llamas was a celebrated painter who first created a name for himself in 1937 when he won the First Prize in the Open Poster Competition of the 33rd International Eucharistic Congress. In 1938, he sojourned to Italy and enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma where he studied for one year. He moved to Spain in 1939 and enrolled at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, where he was mentored by the leading Spanish contemporary painters of that time, Eduardo Chicharro and Manuel Benedito Vásquez Díaz. In 1941, his first exhibit in Spain, Indays, at the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid received widespread popularity. Critics deemed him as the “Filipino Gauguin.” One such work in this exhibit was a trio of nudes that highlighted their Filipino features. The piece was highly acclaimed that it was reproduced and featured in Shin Seiki, a cultural magazine in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation. Similar to the above-mentioned piece, the nude women in this work are voluptuous in physical form. The elongated figures of the women juxtaposed with their facial expressions manifest the sensual undertone of this work, with the overall composition exuding sultriness and allure.