PROPERTY FROM THE JESUS AND MARITESS PINEDA COLLECTION

ABOUT THE WORK

Like many artists that came before him, Tam Austria was enamored with the provincial Philippines. By the time he had entered the art scene bearing the beauty of his hometown Tanay as a veritable muse, many of his contemporaries were taken with foreign and modern painting styles. When asked about his continued persistence in painting this kind of genre (“Is your art pertinent for the times?”) was a simple “I don’t know. It seems pertinent for me.” The lot in hand still features Austria’s penchant for the provincial, however, it included the influence of Cubism in his works. The severity of the Cubist method of shattering an image down to its basic planer shapes conflicts with Austria’s inherent sense of romanticism – instead, he still retained the romantic image of a woman with her children with her basketful of wares in front of her. However, the Cubist influence revealed itself in the prismatic quality of the colors he used. Shard edges and sudden color changes make do with the Cubistic influence Austria wanted his works to have. In that way, he bridged the vast difference between cubism and romanticism, dousing the comfortable image of the provincial Philippines with a shock of modernism that appealed to a huge crowd. (Hannah Valiente)