This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by the artist confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

There is at once a friezelike and layered in atmospheric space, that fully reveals a polyphonic rhythm. In the paintings, the tumble of almost palpable outstretched bodies show that the artist was familiar with the dense figural compositions typical of the bas reliefs on Roman sarcophagi. Mallari conjures emotions with jangling or modulated colors and suggestive forms. He sees it as a series of contradictory ideas which cannot be resolved into any structural ideal. A strongly theatrical layout characterizes the work. In a stage-like setting of marked perspective effect, the figures run about feverishly, creating a syncopated but highly decorative rhythm throughout the composition. Figures crowded his mind, similar to decalomanias, with such clear contours and definite colors that it was easy to draw them first in order to organize and paint them later.