Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi and Mr. Claude Tayag confirming the authenticity of this lot

ABOUT THE WORK

A chameleon-like career is said to have been the kind that Macario Vitalis had in the whole duration of him being an artist. He had the capacity and inclination to explore various styles and themes and then return to any of them at any time. His artistic career was rich and complex, but still too little is known beyond the 70 years that were devoted to painting and drawing. Vitalis became interested in abstraction after the Second World War, under the influence of Jacques Villon. From 1946 to 1947, he produced several abstract compositions in a cubist style and colored them with a vibrant palette. Towards the end of his life, in 1985, he embarked on a series in search of the cosmos, calling it “GALAXIES.” A year later, in August of 1986, a retrospective exhibition for Vitalis was held in Manila; more than a hundred paintings were presented. True, little has been written about the work of Vitalis. His works, although signed, are either undated or, according to his website, many of them were not “able to be dated with certainty.” Fortunately, one of the most important Filipino art critics, Alice Guillermo, wrote introductory texts to each catalog published on the occasion of the artist’s exhibitions in the Philippines. (Isabella Romarate)