Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

Exhibited: Museum of Philippine Art, Museum Artists, Manila, 1981

ABOUT THE WORK

Instead of confronting the audience with glorified actual objects, Florencio B. Concepcion bombards his viewers with a soothing sea of colors painted in abstraction. Serene would be a fair word to describe this 1971 piece Metamorphosis of Blue and Green, a splash of the different hues of blue that equates the boundless seas, with hints of maritime vegetation as represented by a flush of green shades. A gradual shift from dusky to lighter shades of blue is evident, as if portraying a creative duel of good and evil. Concepcion’s talent in brushwork and compositional arrangement is seen in his tactical placement of shapes and gradation of colors. Truly, it is a melodramatic work of art that induces psychological relaxation. Master of Expression, Florencio B. Concepcion, was part of a new generation of painters that emerged in the mid-sixties from the progressive post-war period. Reticent, he was nevertheless a respected academic and art educator, influencing artists such as Augusto Albor, Romulo Galicano, and Lao Lianben. The artist believes his paintings are like an autobiography, a product of his feelings and his creativity. Therefore, if his paintings calm the viewer, it’s because Concepcion himself is a man at peace.