PROPERTY FROM THE DON J. ANTONIO ARANETA COLLECTION

ABOUT THE WORK

At the end of 1953, the now-legendary Philippine Art Gallery held a landmark exhibition titled "First Non-Objective Art Exhibition in Tagala." Among those who participated was Victor Oteyza, an original member of the Neo-Realists that emerged in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second World War. Art critic and poet Magtanggol Asa (nom de plume of Aurelio Alvero) noted that as early as 1947, Hernando Ocampo and Oteyza, leading pioneers and champions of the Neo-Realist style, were already experimenting with non-objectivism, making them forerunners of the said style in the Philippine art scene. As particularly seen in this work, which comes from the same period as that seminal show on Philippine nonobjective painting, Oteyza exhibits his linear spontaneity and geometric acuity rendered with his keen eye in weaving and interspersing balance across the planar surface. The art critic Emmanuel Torres writes in the book Art Philippines that Oteyza's "art is predominantly linear and detached; lines do not have referential or associational meanings." Oteyza graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of the Philippines, hence his profound understanding of the relationships between linear elements and the composition's pictorial space. Oteyza's linear and geometric spontaneity, which can be perceived as a dynamic sense of movement, heightens the work's graphic quality, seemingly evoking the elegant stained-glass windows of the classic churches and cathedrals. Victor Oteyza was the son of Mauricio Oteyza, a Filipino concert violinist in the US, and Dolores Sta. Maria. He is a cousin of National Artist for Film Eric de Guia, more popularly known as 'Kidlat Tahimik.' (Adrian Maranan