Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

A pioneering modernist, Ricarte Puruganan had taken the steps toward moving neo-realism and modernism forward. Against the prevailing conservatives, the stylized and more expressionistic had been of lesser interest — such was so until the Thirteen Moderns had introduced post-impressionistic and modernist works into the art scene. Victorio Edades, Carlos ‘Botong’ Francisco, Ricarte Puruganan and Anita Magsaysay, to name a few, were among this strong, founding collective. An award-winning artist, Puruganan has gained great acclaim for his venture into impressionism. Although playful with his subject matter, Puruganan had always exhibited a deftness in his renditions – be they for oil paintings or textbook illustrations. One of the founding cornerstones in Philippine Modernism, some of his works now hang in the Philippine National Museum.