Accompanied by a certificate signed by the artist confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist

Literature: Arcellana, Francisco. Joya. Manila: Dick Baldovino Enterprises, 1996. Full-color photograph. Listed as "Summer Retreat, May 16, 1992" in Joya's Catalogue of Works compiled by Ruben D.F. Defeo.

ABOUT THE WORK

Two decades before Summer Retreat was created, in the ‘70s, Jose Joya entered his experimental phase. He worked in a variety of media and forms and explored the limits of acrylic and collage, resulting in oeuvres that revealed multilayered space penetrated with vibrant hues and sometimes neutral tones. The spectrum of colors on his canvas is believed to draw inspiration from tropical landscapes. For the lot at hand, one can observe the fine artist’s interesting departure from his usual brilliant palette. As expected from Joya, in the absence of coloristic concerns, his interest resided in textural detail. His gestural strokes create a motion implied in the amorphous forms, and the paint seems to be applied intuitively and spontaneously. His use of complex swathes of collage effects and overlapping strokes shows us how he perceived the world with a creative vision that gives importance to controlled freedom. The piece is dated 1992, it is the same year when he created one of his renowned abstractions titled Spirit of Season. And, in 1991, only a year prior, he became a recipient of the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining, the highest award granted by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. (Isabella Romarate)