Provenance: Philippine Art Gallery

Exhibited: Philippine Art Gallery, November 30 - December 10, 1957

ABOUT THE WORK

In the last months of 1957, Anita Magsaysay-Ho would return formally to exhibit at the Philippine Art Gallery after a four-year hiatus from its walls. It would also be a foray into oil painting after her egg tempera works from the early 1950s. Magsaysay-Ho would hold the art scene in thrall through the years with one riveting market scene after another : winning notice for Fish Vendors at the next semi-annual AAP competition, followed shortly by another triumph for Fruit Vendors, tail-gating the highly respected Fernando Zobel the following year for top honors. Laughter, the work at hand, captures a bevy of women in a light-hearted moment, the familiar faces wearing white scarves, wreathed in wide smiles. Two women in the foreground appear to be exchanging lively banter; two others join in the high spirits, while a third, make a faint attempt at restraining a fit of giggles The joyous artwork — alongside Fruit Market (auctioned in the León Gallery Asian Cultural Council Auction of this year — was exhibited in the last solo show of the year of the Philippine Art Gallery as detailed in the all-important tag, taking place from November 30th to December 10th, 1957. (The records show that the princely sum of P350 was paid for it, at the time, a small fortune.) It would reprise a theme that first appeared in 1950, titled Tawanan (Laughter) of acrylic on board, presently in the collection of Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Library and Museum. It would be part of another important milestone for Anita Magsaysay Ho: Her third solo exhibition at the PAG which happened to be at its new address on Arquiza corner M.H. del Pilar Streets in Malate.