Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

Prolific artist Raul Isidro’s works evoke nature and spirit, contemplation and meditation. These reflect his approach to art-making as a form of expressing freely and his evolution as an observant artist. In an interview, he said: “My works are mostly abstract because I want to have free expression, that’s why I do it—expression of whatever I see.” Known for his deep-red gestural strokes and segmented-shaped forms, his works are also anchored on abstract meditations of natural phenomena as well as reflections on memories from his colorful, idyllic childhood in Calbayog, Northern Samar. Isidro fuses abstract techniques with a naturalist sensibility, often linked or likened by critics to the free-spirited National Artist Jose Joya. The subject matter and landscape elements in Isidro’s modernist masterpieces—may it be the trees, rocks, wind, water, and people— are captured in its sense of movement and color changes. “Tribal Reflection” shows how he interprets the context of art and life through hues, depth, mood, and a sense of motion. Viewers are drawn to the lucid forms that emerge from his imagination and artistic approach to create an experimental viewpoint.