ABOUT THE WORK

Lydia Velasco’s 2000 acrylic on canvas piece titled Kanyang Pahiwatig showcases Velasco at her best. Velasco’s female figure, a motif the artist is widely regarded for, features exaggerated contours and lines that complement the figure’s relatively heightened scale and proportions. It is this unnatural treatment that lends Velasco’s work a sense of both burgeoning tension and palpable passion. Each brush stroke is visually distinct, allowing the viewer to experience the scene’s spatial presence despite the inherent flatness of the canvas. Velasco is also no stranger to suggestive and evocative themes. Yet her works are never shallow nor gratifyingly provocative. Instead, Velasco’s figures are undeniably progrssive, able to find and accept dignity within the natural desires of the body and the flesh. One of the most notable Filipina modernist painters, Lydia Velasco depicts strong and impressive women in her body of works. Her signature female figures dominating the canvases show various personalities and moods, characterized by sensuousness, strength, and an almost-masculine assertiveness. Velasco asserts women identity and freedom through the elongated and massively rendered subjects which also show the artist’s view of the inherent qualities of women. National Artists H.R. Ocampo and Cesar Legaspi are among the prominent figures in the art scene who influenced her painterly techniques.