Provenance: Provenance:
Antonio M. Locsin Collection

Exhibited: Literature:
Vitalis. Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila. 1986. Plate 67.

Literature: Exhibited: Cultural Center of the Philippines, Macario Vitalis: A Retrospective Exhibition, Manila, August 1 - 27, 1986

ABOUT THE WORK

Macario Vitalis was an Ilocano painter of visionary paintings influenced by French Post-Impressionism. He left the Philippines in 1917 for the United States where he studied art in San Francisco. In 1924, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He left the United States in 1926 and settled in France where he studied at the Academie de Montmartre and set up his art studio in the Paris suburb of Puteaux. During his stay there, he met prominent modernists such as Pablo Picasso and painted art pieces that portrayed the captivating ambiance of pre-war Paris. Vitalis has come to be known for his formidable modernist style. His early work showcased cubist influences from the school of Paris but inclined towards an impressionist-pointillist style. His choice of fauvist palettes that emphasized painterly qualities and strong hues over realistic renderings is the primary facet in this particular work. Vitalis’ landscape paintings are characterized as being simplified and marked with abstraction, eliminating the need to render meticulous details.