This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Gisella Olmedo-Araneta confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

Suppressed shock and dislocation was producing some of the worst social deformities in our urban experience. It shows a world without meaning, yet somehow threatening, full of ominous foreboding — exactly opposite of the booming enthusiasm of city. The expressionist feeling of Olmedo’s paintings is fused with an absorbing interest in form. Since the artist is not primarily interested with the plane of external appearances, he composes his figures not only on the surface, literally, but also in depth. The figures interpenetrate one another. Onib does not have any set compositions before he works, but he lets his fertile subconscious release the images to be shaped by his art. Olmedo’s style has been variously called distortionism or expressionism in the line of Goya, Modigliani and El Greco. He is probably one of those expressionists whose contemplative abilities are reflected in their paintings. While Olmedo himself says that he pursues the theme of portraying the human condition rather than the human situation he implies that would rather do away with particularities of social class. Such pursuit of “essences” eventually results in removing him from everyday existential unfolding. The distortions of people lend them a forceful indentity. They come to life.