This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Mrs. Josefa Joya-Baldovino confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

This is another work that comes between his 1959 “Space Transfiguration” stage and the Yeseria stage. In 1957, Joya went to the United States for further studies. He was exposed to the abstract expressionist movement as it was becoming an establishment there. At the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, Joya fell under the influence of his mentor, Zoltan Sepeshy. Sepeshy was a firm believer in this aesthetic. Joya’s abstract expressionism - sometimes known as action painting — was of a more dramatic, bravura laden type. Instead of the palette knife or syringe, he started to use huge brushes and trowels, much like a mason. This work was done in 1960, just two years before the 1964 Venice Biennale, but it paved the way for the period of “breaking loose in Venice”. In 1972, Alfredo Roces told Cid Reyes: “After his travels and scholarship abroad, Joya introduced these large scale canvases, something not very common at the time. He has carried on with his abstract expressionist paintings, very poetic and lyrical. Then after that, he started to use more vigorous forms, which are closer to the works of de Kooning and characterized by slashes.” Also, in 1972, Manuel Duldulao told Cid Reyes: MD: “He was beginning to make a name for himself in the art scene. At that time, to hang a Joya abstraction in your wall was to risk the ridicule of your friends. Cid Reyes: “Why?” MD: “Joya’s paintings were then considered visual atrocities. People thought they were done by a child in fifth grade. They were shocked to heart that you had to pay for these paintings. Now the same friends who used to laugh at me 10 years ago are in for another shock.” He was of course referring to the sky-high prices that buyers had to pay for a Joya, and that was 1972. Joya’s abstract expressionist reputation — of New York school - was still to be given a wider audience with his participation in the 32nd Venice Biennial in 1964, for which had painted very large works in thick paint applied in semi automatist, gestural manner. Art critic Eric Torres described such works as expressive not much of statements as of states of feeling. “Most of the participating countries had constructed their own pavilions and each cost about P200,000. Because this was the first time that the Philippines had participated in this Biennale, we had been allotted an adequate but small room by the host country. However, this space was good only for one exhibit.” But what a huge, lasting legacy from such a small exhibition room. And in the same vein, what an equally huge, lasting legacy from the 1950s New York School.