Provenance: Private Collection, USA

ABOUT THE WORK

In this work by the Filipino master Romeo Tabuena, one discerns a vendor who is balancing baskets of fruits by her waist and on her head. Her posture is confident, delivering a graceful integrity to the nature of her work. A ribbon by her neck is added for good measure. This work is one of the best examples of Tabuena’s accomplishment in the Cubist idiom. While the style’s characteristic breaking down of figuration into a medley of shapes is evident, Tabuena introduces his own mark through texture and an attention to the fundamental separation between the ground and the figure, making the woman stand out and inhabit the viewer’s full regard.