Accompanied by a certificate issued by Josefa Joya-Baldovino confirming the authenticity of this lot

ABOUT THE WORK

The figurative works of abstractionist Jose Joya bear the artist’s mastery of line and form. The determination with which Joya pursued his craft led to Rodolfo A. Salaveria saying, “If Joya had merely produced drawings, he could still count among the major artists of the country.” With his pastel-on-paper piece entitled Father and Son (1992), Joya showcases his fascination with the proletarian as he turns the popular “mother and child” theme on its head to depict the same image but with a father and his son. He then indigenizes this version as well, depicting the father and son with honey-brown skin and casual Filipino clothes. A humble salakot hat rests on the father’s head and he holds his son close to his chest, body posture relaxed but protective as they create a novel yet familiar vision of the Filipino familial bond. Joya holds the Filipino in high regard in his works. “To the Filipino people who were the source of inspiration for many of the drawings in this book,” he once wrote in his monograph Joya by Joya: Book of Drawings’s dedication. Indeed, his Father and Son shows Joya’s talent for the figurative and his penchant for Filipinization. (Hannah Valiente)