This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by the artist confirming the authenticity of this lot.

Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

Tradition through modernity, Zalameda’s art reflects the very transition that twentieth century Philippine Art experienced from the visual manifestation of a colonial agricultural nation to one that eventually opened enthusiastically to Western tastes. Though known as a jet setter, deep in his art, Zalameda is in search of a simple life. The lyrical power of Zalameda’s modernist abstracted work is achieved through a developing understanding of the complexities of art and social context. Zalameda pursues this with his almost decorative depiction of a rural family which speaks, with surprising vigor, of the notion of a meditative, peaceful world. This immersion in nature would seem to reflect Cezanne’s characteristically nostalgic attitude towards the countryside of Provence. Painted landscapes and scenes of rural life, Zalameda conjoined academic precepts of form and structure with the bright colors of impressionism. The bright colors of the composition suggest the life and vitality of the scene; the interweaving of the planes showing a derived debt to Cubism. The space is kept shallow, and the picture generally is abstract yet representational – that is, the forms in it do not lose their identities as people and not just for form’s sake.