Untitled textile (tapestry made in Germany) 70” x 38” (178 cm x 97 cm) Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Aside from her unassailable trademark as the foremost painter of Filipino women, Anita Magsaysay-Ho has always been known to be an experimental modernist, the bold one who dared to try and experiment with various media beyond the traditional confines of oil painting: egg tempera, photograms, woodcuts, Japanese calligraphy, rakuyaki (Japanese ceramic painting), spilled ink, and even working on fabrics. The genesis of Anita’s experimental artistic nature can be traced back to 1940 when she studied under the great Victorio Edades in the School of Design organized by the latter, Juan Nakpil, Juan Arellano, Pablo Antonio, and other leading architects of the time. It was Edades who influenced Anita to take the progressive path of modernism, leaving her with the creative maxim, “Paint as you like, express yourself, and create.” Later that same year, Anita would be employed as a leather worker for a Russian lady. In her autobiography titled An Artist’s Memoirs (2000), Anita writes: “It was my first discovery of the pleasure one can derive from handicraft. My earnings were insignificant, but the experience was priceless.” Anita would also land a job illustrating beds for the ABC Bed Factory. Anita’s studies at New York’s Art Students’ League in 1946, where she immersed herself in oil painting, portraiture, one-minute sketching, and graphics (woodcut and lithography), and her succeeding enrollment at Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1947, where she learned egg tempera, further fueled her modernist instincts and fascination with everything unorthodox concerning art techniques and style. Anita also learned the art of Japanese calligraphy and rakuyaki when her family moved to Tokyo in the 1960s. Knowing Anita as an avant-garde modernist, it was around this period that she had also likely encountered the intricately elegant art of weaving fabric and thread into a canvas (recalling her gratifying experience of working on handicrafts in the early 1940s)—one that would later develop into her tapestries of the 1970s.
a.) Boy with a Hat signed and dated 1934 (lower left) oil on masonite 14 1/2” x 12” (37 cm x 30 cm) b.) Montalban Landscape signed and dated 1944 (lower left) oil on masonite 12” x 14 1/2” (30 cm x 37 cm) PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist literature Montalban Landscape: Magsaysay-Ho, Anita and Alfredo R. Roces. Anita Magsaysay-Ho: In Praise of Women. Pasig: The Crucible Workshop, 2005. Full-color illustration and painting description on page 223. Boy with a Hat: Magsaysay-Ho, Anita and Alfredo R. Roces. Anita Magsaysay-Ho: In Praise of Women. Pasig: The Crucible Workshop, 2005. Full-color illustration and painting description on page 286. These two subjects, painted back-to-back on a Masonite board, show two facets of Anita Magsaysay-Ho, then a maiden just known as Anita Magsaysay. “Boy with a Hat,” one of Anita’s earliest paintings Anita in her “Amorsolo Era” The first side of the composition, titled Boy with a Hat, is one of the very few paintings of males that Anita did in her entire life. “To paint men, I would have to have models; women, I draw from memory,” she once said in an interview with Archipelago Magazine in the ‘80s. Boy with a Hat is also one of Anita’s earliest paintings to enter the market. In December of last year, Léon Gallery had the privilege of auctioning a 1934 genre painting by Anita titled Lavanderas by the Stream, which was also the first time a work from Anita’s earliest years as a painter was seen by the public. When Anita painted Boy with a Hat, she was in the final year of her studies at the UP School of Fine Arts, the bastion of classic art headed by Fabian de la Rosa. Anita was particularly influenced by Fernando Amorsolo, then the most famous and prolific painter in the Philippines. He was instructor of the courses “Landscape” and “Drawing from Life” during Anita’s senior year. “During our time, I would think Fernando Amorsolo was the most influential. We all used to paint like him,” she would say in an October 1984 interview with art critic Cid Reyes. “We had no basis—an idea or criterion—of what good art really was. That’s why, even then, I was already advocating for some kind of a museum, even just a museum of prints. We had no museum at all. Since Fernando Amorsolo was our teacher, and his paintings were so beautiful, we all painted like him.” The painting shows Anita in her conservative beginnings. The subject is very Amorsolo: a peasant boy wearing his rattan sombrero, rendered in quick strokes with contrasting effects of light and dark areas. Anita may have painted this work in her class “Advanced Oil Painting 3,” helmed by De la Rosa and where students tackle “advanced problems in picture and portrait making with particular regard to composition and harmony of color.” In this course, students paint in situ based on “living and nude costumed models, half and full figures.” “Montalban Landscape,” Anita’s foray into Modernism A wartime gem The other side, titled Montalban Landscape, was painted at the height of the chaos and destruction that was the Second World War. The work is an impressionistic depiction of the mountains of Montalban in Rizal Province, now a go-to haven among mountaineers—especially among Metro Manila residents who want to briefly escape the hustle and bustle of the city—for its scenic hiking sites, notably the “Montalban Trilogy” consisting of Mounts Pamitinan, Binacayan, and Hapunang Banoi. Anita’s swift and candid strokes emphasize that the subject was painted on the spot, en plein air. Her modernist flair is exhibited: bold, vigorous strokes, strong colors, and the eschewing of depth in favor of flatness. The strong tension between color and form results in a dynamically textured work. These are the lasting effects of her studies in the School of Design, headed by none other than modernist strongman Victorio Edades. “Mr. Edades was a very inspiring teacher,” Anita said in her memoirs. “He taught history very well and enlightened us on Cezanne and the Impressionists. From him, I learned how to use colors in a modern way.” Two “Anitas” in One Anita brought her 1934 work Boy with a Hat and her painting materials when she and her family evacuated to Montalban at the height of the war. The land was rife with scarcity, and survival was the name of the game. Artists and their profession/vocation were not spared, as painting materials also became meager. As such, artists like Anita had to improvise to continue pursuing their hearts’ passions. For instance, Vicente Manansala mixed old, hardened paints with coconut oil. The more well-off Anita still relied on her oil paints, albeit recycling her boards and painting on them back-to-back. The result is two paintings in one that show Anita’s evolution: from her “Amorsolo Era” to her breaking away from the confines of tradition and entering her formidable, modernist phase, of which she would be placed in the highest ranks of the foremost Filipino painters of the post-war era. The Great Escape to Montalban Montalban bore witness to Anita and her family’s great escape from the impending bloodshed and battle for the capital city’s liberation. When the war was nearing its climax, Anita and her family moved to Montalban. They hurriedly left their Pasay home on Villaruel Street, as many people started evacuating the city upon hearing of the news “that the Americans were coming back just as MacArthur had promised.” Anita wrote in her memoirs: “My father’s good friend, Mr. Cueto, invited us to use the second floor of his house in Montalban. Our family, along with Mama’s youngest brother, Tio Ramon Corpus, and family, moved there. At this time, the Japanese Army was starting to suffer from a scarcity of food. They commandeered trucks carrying fruits and vegetables. We would hide our chickens in the bathroom whenever Japanese soldiers were in town.” Idyllic painting during the wartime era Life in Montalban was more relaxed, in contrast to their Pasay home, where she recalled of “hardly stepp[ing] out of [their] house as there were many Japanese sentries stationed in the streets. Luckily, we had a brave cook who went to the market every day for fresh food.” In Montalban, Anita was surrounded by the towering mountains and the lush landscapes that all contributed to a relatively calmer sense of spirit. It was in this environment that Anita painted several of her idyllic landscapes. Montalban Landscape powerfully echoes Anita’s sentiments during the war, recalling a poem she wrote in 1944 that resoundingly spoke of her yearnings for freedom, a liberated motherland where she can “glorify my country’s grandeur, her mountains and hills, the valleys rich with harvest, her rivers and her hills.” Anita also taught her friends the fundamentals of drawing. “We met many, many friends in Montalban,” Anita wrote. “Lourdes Reyes Montinola and her sister and relatives were there. Some of my friends wanted to learn how to draw so I gave lessons in drawing, providing them with baskets and fruits to copy. Some of them actually drew well. During the war years, we wore wooden clogs (bakya), but mind you, our wooden shoes were special-carved and painted with rural scenes of nipa huts and coconut trees.” Anita and her family would eventually return to their Pasay home when food in Montalban grew more expensive. Luckily, they and their material property would be spared from the ensuing horror that was to come, thanks to a family friend named Dr. Veloso, who offered the comforts and security of his abode. (Anita recalled that they had to walk carefully through a mined road towards the doctor’s house along Libertad Street.) (Adrian Maranan)
Property from rhe collection of a distinguished lady Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Mother and Child signed and dated 1961 terracotta Height: 15" (38 cm) Length: 6" (15 cm) Width: 6 1/2" (17 cm) Literature: Magsaysay-Ho, Anita and Alfredo R. Roces. Anita Magsaysay-Ho: In Praise of Women. Pasig: The Crucible Workshop, 2005. Reproduced on page 81 with sculpture description. Anita Magsaysay-Ho Magnificence in Terracotta: One of Three Pieces Known by Adrian Marnanan Anita Magsaysay-Ho closed the 1950s and welcomed the 1960s riding high on the heels of her well-deserved success. Anita entered the swinging 60s with her first prize nod at the 13th Annual Exhibition of the Art Association of the Philippines for her painting Two Women. It was a grand comeback to the top for Anita; she won her first-ever gold in the 1952 Annual for her now-iconic The Cooks. It was also a bolder affirmation of her being crowned towards the culmination of the dashing 50s as one of the “Six Most Outstanding Filipino Painters” by the highly popular and influential This Week Magazine. She was the only woman painter on the list, making her the country’s foremost Filipina artist. It was just natural for Anita to flex from time to time her unwavering spirit of experimentation. After all, she had been the famous conjurer of egg tempera among Filipino artists, which she said was the most superior, most demanding, and most favored medium. Anita would then dive into sculpting, which had also interestingly been explored by her fellow modernist Vicente Manansala beginning in the late 50s. The cover story of the 8 October 1961 issue of the widely circulated The Sunday Times Magazine featured one of Anita’s clay sculptures, a companion piece to the Mother and Child work on offer at this sale. Anita described that her sculptures were born of her earnest experimentation. The article succinctly wrote of Anita’s exploration of her new medium. “Like many other painters, she recently became fascinated with sculpture and began to dabble in the art as a hobby whenever she was not busy with her brush and oils.” The article also described Anita’s sculpting process. “Mrs. Ho fashion[s them] from clay, then had [them] baked by direct firing in a big native kiln.” There are only three known clay sculptures made by Anita in her lifetime. These are recorded in the authoritative monograph on Anita’s life and works titled Anita Magsaysay-Ho: In Praise of Women, authored by the eminent Alfredo Roces and with annotations on works by the artist herself. Anita particularly commented on the work at hand. She wrote, “This sculpture was fired in an open pit, that is why it has varied coloring. This will be cast in metal.” Anita had a particular fondness for the mother and child theme. She grew up to be inspired by her tender memories of her dear mother, Amalia Leonor Corpus. In her memoirs, Anita speaks highly of her mom, describing her as “the nicest and kindest of persons; indeed, a wonderful mother.” She also wrote: “She had a serenity that I wish I could have. She brought us up with simple anecdotes based on her life experiences. She was armed with a bag full of many Spanish and Tagalog sayings, which she would use to suit the occasion.” Anita added, “It was only when she died that we learned from the many people she had helped—students, friends, and relatives—that she gave money to those in need. She enjoyed watching me draw the illustrations of the children’s books that I was doing for Father Bishop Morrow, my boss. She patiently erased the pencil marks I had left on the pen drawings for the Catholic readers, My Jesus and I. [Anita illustrated the images of My Jesus and I, a set of readers for children studying in Catholic schools. It was Anita’s first job, illustrating for the book from her UP years up to her New York studies in the late ‘40s. The work was offered to her by her UP professor, Vicente Dizon, who was then leaving for the US and needed an immediate replacement for his illustration duties for the children’s book.] Anita’s face interestingly resembles the mother in the sculpture, lovingly embracing her child. By the time she made this work, she had been a busy and devoted mother to her and Robert’s five children: Helen, Linda, Doris, Robert Alexander, and Steven Theodore, all of whom she lovingly referred to as her “best critics.” “The children grew up watching their mother paint,” she wrote in her memoirs. “Robert Alexander and Doris would sit for hours watching me wield my brush.” Mother and Child is a snapshot not only of Anita’s earnest devotion to the cause of Filipino modern art but a testament to her high regard for a life-sustaining warmth nourished by maternal bond, a most noble Filipino value.
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) On the Beach signed and dated 1975 (lower right) mixed media on canvas 30” x 36” (75 cm x 90 cm) Provenance: Private collection, USA Literature: Guillermo, Alice, Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, and Anita Magsaysay-Ho. Anita Magsaysay-Ho: A Retrospective. Manila: A. Magsaysay, Inc., 1988. Published on the occassion of the exhibition Anita Magsaysay-Ho: A Retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Manila. Full-color illustration on page 111 and painting description on page 110. Magsaysay-Ho, Anita and Alfredo R. Roces. Anita Magsaysay-Ho: In Praise of Women. Pasig: The Crucible Workshop, 2005. Full-color illustration and painting description on page 263. Exhibited: The Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Anita Magsaysay-Ho: A Retrospective, Manila, 15 December 1988 - 15 January 1989 Anita’s Ocean of Memories: From Summers in Coastal Zambales to Her Lively Hong Kong Years by Adrian Maranan Anita Magsaysay-Ho painting is essentially born from the hallowed vessels of the artist’s memory, in which the Filipina emerges strong and triumphant in their dignified labor and proud joy in their day-to-day endeavors. She was once recorded to have said in an interview with BusinessWorld on the occasion of her 1988 retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila: “I’m familiar with Filipino women. I know how they feel, I can paint them from memory.” In the summers of her youth, Anita basked in the fresh country air of Zambales, the hometown of her father, Ambrosio Magsaysay. Every March, Anita would spend the hot summer days in the company of her “Nana,” her grandmother Ramona Corpus, recalling in her memoirs, “Each summer vacation in March brought on the exciting trip to Zambales. My Nana and I would take the two-day journey by sea from Manila to the port of Subic. My mother, with my sister and brother, accompanied by a retinue of servants, would follow later. They usually headed for San Marcelino, my father’s hometown. My grandmother, Nana, and I always stayed at her home in San Antonio. Her large house stood at the corner of the plaza.” Beyond San Antonio, Anita also spent her summer vacations along the shores of Subic Bay, where her family used to have a nipa house “with a big verandah,” as she described. “Subic Bay was once full of fish,” she recounted. “I remember when the ringing sound of the village bells was a signal that there was a school of fish near the shore. My brother, Mike, would rush to the shore to help pull the nets in. For his efforts, he would be rewarded with one bonito fish.” She added: “We used to have a nipa house by the sea with a big verandah where we would go on vacations. My male cousins would sleep in the verandah. Other relatives would often stop by, spend the night and go swimming the following morning. It was always like a picnic. We were so happy until the war came, and we had to stop going to Zambales.” “Although my father used to manage logging and sawmill businesses owned by my granduncle, Teodoro Yangco, he eventually bought a mango farm by the sea in Zambales. My life, and therefore, my paintings, are so enriched by these vacations.” The coastal town of San Antonio and the pristine, lively waters of Subic Bay would be the perfect spots from where Anita would cull her memories of fisherfolks—the women mending the nets while their sons, brothers, and husbands prepare to toil in the high seas, eager to catch a bounty of fresh sea produce. A Painter Away from Her Motherland Fast forward to the 1960s, Anita would find herself at the crossroads of painting and becoming a devoted housewife to her own family. The entirety of the 1950s marked her successive years of triumph in painting in her homeland, even being crowned by the highly popular This Week Magazine in September 1958 as one of the country’s “6 Most Outstanding Filipino Painters” (She was the foremost Filipina painter of her time, a consistent prize awardee at the AAP’s annual and semi-annual competitions, and her once in a blue moon exhibitions were always the toast of Manila’s art circle.). But in the early 60s, Anita made that very difficult decision of leaving her motherland. She had been devoid of her Filipino citizenship due to a Philippine law that dictates that a wife automatically assumes the citizenship of her husband. Robert, a Chinese citizen, could not return to Shanghai where he would build their own house as a couple, as China had recently been overtaken by the Communists under Mao Zedong. “I felt I had lost everything,” Anita said. “I was now [without a country]; I who loved my country so much.” At the urging of Robert’s father, who had been a Brazilian citizen for nine years, Robert, together with Anita and their children Helen, Linda, Doris, Robert Alexander, and Steven, migrated to the South American nation. “It was a difficult decision,” Anita said in her memoirs. “I did not want to leave my parents…It was, I believed, important for the family to have a country again.” Anita did not have the time to paint in Brazil as she had allotted her time to homemaking and knowing the ins and outs of the country to become a proper citizen. The following years would be marked by constant travels and migration to other countries, where Robert could see the prospects of having to smoothly run his shipping business: Tokyo in Japan, Vancouver and Montreal in Canada, and Hong Kong. Anita’s Ink Blot Paintings In 1967, Anita and her family moved to Montreal from Vancouver. Around this time, all her children had now gone to boarding schools, except for Linda, who stayed with her in their home. After more than a decade of being a devoted homemaker, Anita now had that chance to fully return to her first love of painting. "With more time on my hands, I did two woodcuts for my Christmas cards and began to paint again," Anita wrote. But Anita felt stagnant. Returning to her senses, she recalled that experience when they were still residing in Tokyo, where she learned the art of ink blots from an old Jewish lady. Learning from this recollection, Anita threw ink on her canvas, then water, then oil, where they would "rush and run into each other." "You will be surprised to see how beautiful the image of 'rocks' emerges," Anita said. "That's how the Chinese do those rocks. After it is done, you will be surprised to see the 'rocks' by the sea or the logs in a forest. Of course, you improve on the rock," she said. Anita's ink blot paintings can be viewed as another successful and earnest era of experimentation after her pioneering use of egg tempera during her modernist heydays of the 1950s. Anita would say that these ink blot paintings encapsulate her painting style that is most "difficult, if not, impossible to duplicate," as "the shapes formed by the ink blots cannot be repeated as they are." Anita’s On the Beach, Reclaiming One’s Identity and Memories The work on offer in this auction, On the Beach, from that series of experimentation, was painted by Anita when the Ho family moved to Hong Kong, dictated by Robert's Magsaysay Lines' relocation of its main office from Tokyo to Hong Kong, where it would now be known as Fairmont Shipping. In Hong Kong, they established their twentieth family residence at the old Estoril court before moving to a larger apartment in Grenville house on Magazine Gap Road. On the Beach depicts four women mending and preparing the nets to be used by the men, most probably their husbands, in their fishing ventures. The ink blots cast by Anita resulted in seemingly hollow voids that exude mystery. The women's nets become diaphanous extensions of the rocks made by the ink blots, the background suggesting a mountainous landscape that evokes the terrain of Anita's Zambales youth. The scene captures Anita's recollections of spending summer vacations in her family's nipa house by the beach. But, the overall composition exudes a mystical version of an otherwise real-life-inspired setting. Artist-critic Alfredo Roces wrote in his book on Anita: "Magsaysay-Ho created these images at a time when she herself was caught in the dilemma of changing worlds, between a past home in the Philippines of her happy childhood and the promise of her family's new homeland in Canada. A disparity, the uncomfortable juggling of two worlds, is the migrant's lot. It is this edgy, uncertain, precarious condition that the artist has recorded on canvas. The anxiety and the certainty of an uprooted person shape the artist's vision, and her works from that time revealed this." Rather than entirely creating images culled from her memory, as she had always done, she let her medium speak for itself. Was it suggesting an answer that Anita probably wanted during this time, seeking to uncover why in the world she must be uprooted from the environment from which she had fond memories that inspired her to pursue her creative passion? Or was it Anita submitting to an otherworldly Being all her feelings of alienation and anxiety as a way of purging all these negative vibrations, and in the process, letting her blissful memories of days past speak clearly to her at the forefront as a way of preserving her intimate bond with her motherland, which she dearly loved and treasured? The ink blot paintings produced by Anita during her Canadian and Hong Kong periods differed in how the latter exudes more luminosity, whereas the former possesses a relatively somber palette. Roces observed that the Hong Kong period was where Anita's memories of her youth "triumph[ed] over the reality of her happy sojourn in Canada, the land where Anita's children grew up in, and where, no doubt, their own coming-of-age memories of "home" would have to reside." “[It was in Hong Kong] where I lived for 17 years,” said Anita. “I consider this time my most productive years.” In her memoirs, she speaks highly of her Hong Kong years, writing that she “played a lot of bridge” there. “The interesting shopping for me was going to Stanley market—a shopping area by the sea, where one finds clothes not found in Hong Kong stores—and exploring Hollywood Road for antiques. I guess this is what newcomers in Hong Kong do.” Anita further wrote, “I also painted as much as I could.” The relative clarity Anita achieved in her paintings in Hong Kong, where she felt the most productive and prolific, may have been because her dear Philippines was now a mere 2-hour flight away, easing her homesickness. Anita also had more time for leisure and painting, as her children now had their own lives and families to build. The mid-1970s, when Anita created On the Beach, also marked the beginning of her "Green Period," which critic Alice Guillermo described in the catalog notes for Anita's retrospective as named after "its predominant coloration." "The green that predominates is the hue of leaves, fruit, and vegetables, and the women figures share this color quality perhaps symbolically as they become like fruit in harmony with nature." In a way, Anita had claimed a resolution to her own misery by finding the meaning of home in her own family and nourishing them with warmth through her experiences of tenderness. As Roces noted, "If the present and the future were uncertain, there was warm refuge in happy memories of the past." That Anita chose to delve into ink blot painting is a testament not only to her modernist spirit of bold experimentation; it is a demonstration of Anita going into her subconscious, demonstrating a capability of profound introspection. On the Beach at Anita’s First Retrospective O n the Beach was showcased in Anita’s retrospective exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila from December 1988 to January 1989. Dubbed “The Retrospective of the Decade,” it was Anita’s first show in 10 years and marked her first-ever retrospective, celebrating her 40 years as a living legend of Philippine art. "With more time on my hands, I did two woodcuts for my Christmas cards and began to paint again," Anita wrote. As always, the retrospective’s opening night became the talk of the town, with more than 500 guests trooping to The Met to see Anita’s works and even catch a glimpse of the legendary artist, causing traffic jams and led to others abandoning their cars and rushing towards the museum. The retrospective was a microcosm of who’s who in town: Sen. Leticia Shahani, Pitoy Moreno, Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, Dr. Teyet Pascual, Judy Araneta-Roxas, Bambi Harper, Gemma Cruz-Araneta, among others. Society insider Maurice Arcache even reported that many failed to properly see and scrutinize Anita’s works due to the jampacked cocktails. In the brochures and invitations, Anita wrote a personal dedication to the Filipina whom she continuously championed in her art. "I dedicate this exhibition to the women of the Philippines—the source of my inspiration—their movements and gestures, their expressions of happiness and frustrations, their diligence and shortcomings, their joy of living. I know well, for after all, I am one of them." This brings us full circle to Anita’s past, where she had always been joyous and at peace in the comfort of her fellow Filipina.
Lavanderas by the Stream signed and dated 1934 (lower left) oil on board 18 1/2” x 14 1/2” (47 cm x 37 cm) PROVENANCE: Private collection, USA On September 21, 1958, This Week released its selection of "Six Outstanding Filipino Painters," chosen by a veritable panel of judges from the various fields of the arts. Anita Magsaysay-Ho emerged triumphant, the only woman who earned a spot in the highly publicized list. The secret that earned her a spot? It's all in her depiction of women in all their glorious delight. As a fitting culmination to Anita Magsaysay-Ho's 110th birth anniversary and the worthy recognition of her maiden participation at the recently concluded 60th Venice Biennale through her 1944 Self-Portrait, the earliest known work by the revered modernist has come home to the Philippines. Here, Anita's now iconic women make their grand debut in a piece highly influenced by her esteemed professor, Fernando Amorsolo. This 1934 piece, titled Lavanderas by the Stream, is the earliest painting by Anita Magsaysay-Ho to come to the market. This work is a rarity; every monograph written about Anita has always started her chronological presentation of works in the 1940s, missing the gap that could be filled by her earliest works from the 1930s. This work fills that gap in Anita's visual chronology of her oeuvre, a veritable window into her conservative beginnings before she metamorphosed into a pioneering Filipina modernist. When Anita created this work, she was in the final year of her studies at the UP School of Fine Arts. Students in their fourth year are required to take up the course "Advanced Landscape Painting," helmed by none other than Fernando Amorsolo. A description of the course from the 1932-33 General Catalogue of the University of the Philippines details that classes in this course are conducted in the nearby open localities selected by the professor. Anita wrote in her memoirs that Amorsolo sent off his students to travel to different locations within the School of Fine Arts environs and paint there on the spot. Anita depicts in the work at hand—painted en plein air—a scene from rural Malate, particularly the vicinity of nearby De La Salle College, a less than 2-kilometer walk from the School of Fine Arts and “at the time was still a rural area," she recalled. Anita wrote in her old diary about a moment when she and her classmates/friends, Amparing and Consuelo, painted “a beautiful landscape” with “some bedraggled nipa huts among clamps of bamboos” in the background. That diary entry is accompanied by Anita's sketch reminiscing about that moment, a drawing depicting a scenery similar to the work on offer. The setting of Lavanderas by the Stream also bears similarities to a particular anecdote in Anita’s memoir, in which she waited for Amorsolo in the vicinity of La Salle to come and critique a painting she did of the locale (a story recounted in the previous essay). One can also imagine in the work on offer how Anita enthusiastically painted this piece, all the while waiting for Amorsolo to assess her progress. Amorsolo's influence can be heavily discerned, especially when viewed from the context of his plein air landscapes. There are the human figures outlined through colors and candid impastos; the short and swift strokes that seemingly pulsate and breathe life into the composition; and the contrast of areas of light and shadow achieved through the manipulation of texture and tones. Of course, there are the lavanderas—a favorite of Amorsolo and the theme of humans living in harmony with nature. Anita learned from Amorsolo the practice of priming the canvas with gray paint, resulting in a pastel-like quality that complements the luminosity of oil paint. "All of us painted our canvases in grey," Anita said to Cid Reyes in an interview. This painting is an image of radiance and serenity, which would eventually be translated into Anita's modernist practice. Even as a modernist, the "Amorsolo effect" was still apparent in the way Anita depicted her women as delightful and serene in their labor, emphasizing the dignity inherent—and that should be endowed to the most precious of all endeavors. This is much like Amorsolo, who blessed her dalaga with all the world's exuberance. While she eventually forged her formidable path to modernism, Anita never renounced her conservative upbringing. "She staunchly believes that one can learn true art only by studying the basic principles set down by the classicists," writes an article in The Sunday Times Magazine following her historic win at the 1952 AAP." For Anita, a good painting is a good painting, whether conservative or modern. What binds the modernist Anita and the pre-war, conservative Anita is that both embodied and found bliss in women at work. With the sheer warmness of its tones, the composition naturally exudes the vitality of living. Here lies Anita's joy and confidence, enlivened by the loving home where she grew up surrounded by people, especially her Nana and her mother Amalia, who nurtured her with unwavering support for her passion for the arts. Anita would say in an interview seven decades later, in May 2005: "In my works, I always celebrate the women of the Philippines. I regard them with deep admiration, and they continue to inspire me—their movements and gestures, their expressions of happiness and frustrations; their diligence and shortcomings; their joy of living. I know very well the strength, hard work, and quiet dignity of Philippine women, for after all, I am one of them." Here in this work is presented—for the very first time in Anita's canvas—the peasant and rural women whom Anita exalted, and who would also put her at the forefront of Philippine post-war painting, perfectly materialized in her historic First Prize win at the 5th AAP Annual in 1952 for her now iconic The Cooks
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Hand-signed and dated '1990' (lower right) Ed. 217/300 Offset lithograph 32 x 42 cm (12 1/2 x 16 1/2 in) Doris Ho has graciously confirmed the authenticity of this artwork
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Hand-signed and undated (lower right) and initialed on plate Ed. 62/100 Serigraph by Atelier Art Print 40 x 40 cm (15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in)
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Hand-signed and dated '1993' (lower right) Ed. 150/350 Lithograph Print size: 25 x 33 cm (10 x 13 in) Paper size: 39.4 x 45.7 cm (15 1/2 x 18 in)
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Hand-signed with dedication 'To dear Carol from . . Anita Magsaysay-Ho' (lower right) Print on canvas 33 x 25 cm (13 x 10 in)
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1924 - 2012) Signed and dated '1977' (lower right) Tapestry Image dimensions: 66 x 98 cm (26 x 38 1/2 in) Total dimensions: 185.5 x 97 cm (73 x 38 in)
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Signed and dated '1989' (lower right) Watercolor on paper 37 x 24 cm (14 1/2 x 9 1/2 in) Doris Ho has graciously confirmed the authenticity of this artwork
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Signed and dated '1959' (lower left) Ink and watercolor on paper 33 x 48 cm (13 x 19 in) A signed note from the artist is affixed to the back of the frame Accompanied by a Provenance Letter issued by Art Circle Gallery
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Signed and dated '1997' (lower right) Charcoal on paper 35 x 46 cm (14 x 18 in) Accompanied by a provenance document with a photo of the artwork with the owner and the artist Exhibition: The Crucible Gallery, Mandaluyong City, 1997
PROPERTY FROM THE JESUS AND MARITESS PINEDA COLLECTION Sabungero signed (lower left) ca. 1945 - 1946 oil on canvas 15" x 10 3/4" (38 cm x 27.5 cm) LITERATURE: Roces, Alfredo. Anita Magsaysay-Ho: In Praise of Women (With Annotations on Paintings by Anita Magsaysay-Ho). Pasig City: The Crucible Workshop, 2005. Full-color illustration and painting description on page 281. WRITE UP Anita Magsaysay-Ho (May 25, 1914 - May 5, 2012) was— and is—a pre-eminent figure in the world of Filipino modern art. She was also the only female member of the Thirteen Moderns, a group of Filipino avant-garde artists. She was born in 1914 in Manila. Her father Ambrosio Magsaysay, an engineer, was Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s uncle. Anita was painting from the age of nine. She studied at the School of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines, under the tutelage of Filipino master painters Fabian de la Rosa, and his nephews Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo, as well as Ireneo Miranda and Vicente Rivera y Mir. She studied at Manila’s School of Design, under Victorio Edades and Enrique Ruiz. She then left in the 1930s to go to the United States, where she studied at the New York Students’ League under Kenneth Hayes Miller, Will Barnet and Robert Ward Johnson. She also studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, under Zoltan Sepeshy. She moved to New York City, where she gave painting and drawing lessons. There, she met Robert Ho from Hong Kong. They married and moved to China, where Ho’s shipping company, Magsaysay Inc., began. The couple eventually had five children and they moved frequently because of Ho’s work. They lived in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. Wherever she lived, Anita had a studio where she could paint. Although she was eventually identified as one of the Thirteen Moderns, in the early 1940s, the influence of her teacher Fernando Amorsolo was still clearly visible, both in terms of subject and technique. Later, her work evolved toward modernism. In the work at hand, Anita masterfully captures the roughness and vigor associated with the famed sabungero, whose pastime was, and remains to be, a ubiquitous sight in virtually every corner of the country. It is an Amorsolo subject, but treated so differently. The brushstrokes are strong, the colors are deftly applied. The technique is brute, but the charm of the sabungero and the implied rural scene comes across. Critic E. Aguilar Cruz included her among the Neo-Realists, which later evolved into the Philippine Art Gallery group, which also numbered other women artists, Lyd Arguilla and Nena Saguil. Through the 1950s, she consistently won top awards from the Art Association of the Philippines. Her compositions emphasized movement and bustling interaction by means of bold, vigorous brushstrokes, and strong tonal contrasts of light and dark, particularly when she was using egg tempera. Magsaysay-Ho’s most famous works are those identified with the everyday lives of Filipino women, who characteristically wore scarves, had slanted eyes, in angular poses. In her old age, she could not work with oils anymore, the fumes overcame her. She continued to paint until her 2009 stroke. She died three years later, just three weeks before her 98th birthday. Her paintings continue to command the highest prices for works by a Filipino artist. This painting is important because it shows Anita Magsaysay’s style in transition. (From the Ramon Villegas Archives)
Planting Rice signed and dated 1990 (lower left) oil on canvas 36" x 30" (91 cm x 76 cm) PROVENANCE A gift from the artist WRITE UP: It may not be entirely accidental that there are so few paintings with the theme “Planting Rice” by Anita Magsaysay-Ho, despite the fact that its iconic subject matter would have been an important narrative in her over- arching theme of the Filipina at work. Perhaps the clue lies in the history of the “Planting Rice” painting which was made famous by the turn-of-the-century artist Fabian de la Rosa. For de la Rosa, this seminal work would win him a gold at the World’s Fair of St. Louis in 1904 and would mark the passing of the torch from Juan Luna to de la Rosa himself, as the Spanish empire gave way to the North American. It would be Fabian’s nephew, Fernando Amorsolo, however, who would make “Planting Rice” famous across the archipelago, replicated in countless newspapers and magazines, and most importantly calendars that would grace Filipino homes across the country. Anita Magsaysay-Ho’s first formal training would be at the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines over which both men presided : the former as influential dean and the latter as her instructor. Anita would very soon shift allegiances from the classical school to the avant-garde world of abstract art championed by the Cranbrook Academy of Art where she went for post- grad studies as well as that melting-pot of cutting-edge art, the Philippine Art Gallery. From the 1950s onwards, Anita would depict women harvesters, including several works entitled “Sheaves”, showing females carrying long golden stalks of rice, a couple of them of women pounding the grain. Magsaysay-Ho would very rarely depict the iconic scene of planting rice, with only one other documented titled “In Anita Magsaysay-Ho the Rice Field” (1962). Her description of “rich green tones and in the Impressionist style” would be the same as if it were written for the work at hand. “This is a scene from my childhood which I remember well — there is great dignity in their work.” In “Planting Rice”, three women prepare the rice to be planted in the muddy fields. One woman in the background already stands in the pilapil, ready to press the shoots in the soft earth. The others hold the green stems gracefully as if they were doing a dance. The color palette is extremely soothing in cool blues and violets, very much different from Amorsolo’s sunlit vistas. For Fabian de la Rosa and Fernando Amorsolo, “Planting Rice” would also be a metaphor of female fertility, certainly a symbol of the docile, compliant Filipina woman, the dutiful helpmate of the farmer and his life. She would be silent, smiling, and self-sacrificing. In Anita Magsaysay Ho’s delicate but firm hands, “Planting Rice” would become a story of the strong woman, fending for herself and achieving without boundaries. It’s a worthy symbol on the occasion of her 110th anniversary, as one of the foremost of the Filipino Moderns. This year, the Venice Biennale will celebrate Anita Magsaysay-Ho at the 60th International Art Exhibition, the centerpiece of the influential biennial, where her art and life will be celebrated in the group show “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.” It will not only highlight artists who are foreigners, immigrants, expatriates, diasporic emigres, exiled individuals, or refugees, but more importantly, spotlight artworks created in the past century that are now points of reference for the new generations.”
Harvesters dated 1957 oil on canvas 24” x 30” (61 cm x 76 cm) PROVENANCE: A gift from Regina Dee, from the collection of her husband Dee K. Chiong to Leticia B. Lucas. EXHIBITED: Philippine Art Gallery, Manila,6th Anniversary Exhibition, August 24, 1957. Philippine Art Gallery, Manila, Solo exhibition, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, November 30 - December 10, 1957. LITERATURE: “A New Group of Paintings by Anita Magsaysay-Ho.” This Week, September 29, 1957. Black-and-white illustration on page 32. Philippine Art Gallery. 7 Years of the Philippine Art Gallery: 1951 - 1957. Manila: Philippine Art Gallery, 1958. Listed as “Harvesters.” and owned by Dee K, Chiong, as No. 2059, on page Ap-37. WRITE UPFor this work, Anita Magsaysay-Ho plumbed the depths of her happiest childhood memories. The centerpiece was the work Harvesters. It would actually appear twice on the walls of the Philippine Art Gallery: First as the Harvesters as part of the 6th anniversary show of the PAG on August 24, 1957; and then again for Magsaysay-Ho’s solo exhibit which opened on November 30, 1957. The book 7 Years of the Philippine Art Gallery : (1951 -1957) produced by the PAG in 1958 would list Dee Kee Chiong as the owner of the Harvesters. It would be in his collection when he passed and his wife, the beauteous Regina Dee, would give it as a gift to his devoted secretary Leticia B. Lucas a few years later. Magsaysay-Ho would say that she would be exhorted by her teachers at the Art Academy to paint what she knew, but not the literal forms or shapes of Filipino people but the spirit that inhabited them. This, is what would make her paintings not only uniquely Philippine but also uniquely her own. Harvesters, the work at hand, takes place in the mountains of Zambales, in the lush green fields between San Antonio and San Marcelino, the hometown of Ambrosio Magsaysay and his mother and aunts. One of them was married to Don Ambrosio’s half-brother, Juan Rodriguez and he possessed an even vaster tract of land called Dalanawan, which rolled over several small hills at the foot of Mt. Pinatubo. This was the kingdom of the Aetas and Anita’s Tio Juanito was named Governor of the area. It is easy to imagine that this painting was set in Dalanawan: Anita would remember climbing the hills to look down “on the lovely scenery” below. It is a gold and pink-streaked dawn of an eternal summer. A grove of banana trees are bursting with their fruit, so many and so lush that they keep an entire family busy gathering the bounty into sacks. A man trundles one bundle while a woman, her son and daughter, are busy with more of this cornucopia. (Lisa Guerrero Nakpil)
a.) Two Women hand signed and dated 1990 (lower right) print 224/300 11” x 13 1/4” (28 cm x 33 cm) b.) Two Women hand signed and dated 1990 (lower right) print 224/300 11” x 13 1/4” (28 cm x 33 cm)
a. Vendors signed and dated 1996 ( lower right) print handsigned with dedication 11” x 13 1/4” (28 cm x 34 cm) b.Untitled signed and dated 1996 ( lower right) print handsigned with dedication 11” x 13 1/4” (28 cm x 34 cm)
a. Still Life hand signed ( lower right) print 104/300 13 1/2” x 17 1/2” (34 cm x 44 cm) b. Still Life hand signed ( lower right) print 104/300 13 1/2” x 17 1/2” (34 cm x 44 cm)
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Girl in a Maria Clara signed and dated 1944 (lower left) oil on masonite board 24” x 18” (61 cm x 46 cm) In the 1930s, Anita Magsaysay-Ho would sharpen her skills at the avant-garde Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, the same college that would later influence the art of Jose Joya and Napoleon Abueva. She also studied at the New York Students’ League under Kenneth Hayes Miller, Will Barnet and Robert Ward Johnson. But before she would make her name as the only female member of the vaunted Thirteen Moderns, she had a sterling foundation in classical, academic art. Ramon N. Villegas would note that Anita would begin painting from the age of nine — and went on to study at the School of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines, under the tutelage of Filipino master painters Fabian de la Rosa, and his nephews Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo, as well as Ireneo Miranda and Vicente Rivera y Mir. Furthermore, she studied at Manila’s School of Design, under Victorio Edades and Enrique Ruiz. It was in New York City where she also met Robert Ho from Hong Kong. They married and moved to China, where Ho’s shipping company, Magsaysay Inc., began. The couple eventually had five children and they moved frequently because of Ho’s work. They lived in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. Wherever she lived, Anita had a studio where she could paint. Although she was eventually identified as one of the Thirteen Moderns, in the early 1940s, the influence of her teacher Fernando Amorsolo was still clearly visible, both in terms of subject and technique. Later, her work evolved toward modernism. In the work at hand, Girl in a Maria Clara, Magsaysay-Ho depicts a dolllike tot dressed in a traditional ‘Maria Clara’ ensemble : A lace panuelo (fichu) is draped over the traditional camisa (shirt) with the billowing sleeves of a turn-of-the-century styled traje de mestiza, accented with blue appliqué rendered in an Impressionist manner. A matching azure skirt completes the costume; as do a complete suite of child-sized jewelry : a pearl-studded comb, a tamborin of pierced gold beads, and creolla hoop earrings. The lovely, wide-eyed child holds a painted abanico (fan) for additional flourish. The portrait is an Amorsolo subject, but treated so differently. The brushstrokes are strong, the colors are deftly applied. The technique is intensely alive, but the charm of Filipina beauty shines through. Magsaysay-Ho was to the manor born: her father Ambrosio Magsaysay, an engineer, was uncle to the future Philippine president Ramon. She was descended from Luis Rafael Yangco whose fleet of ships earned him the title of “King of Manila Bay” and she would summer in the home of his refined son, Teodoro who would later be the Philippines’ Resident Commissioner in the United States. She was therefore no stranger to the upper crust and would be asked to create portraits not only of Manila’s society women but also their pampered children.
Anita Magsaysay-Ho (1914 - 2012) Laughter signed and dated 1957 (lower right) oil on canvas 24" x 20" (61 cm x 51 cm) THE JOY OF WOMEN Anita Magsaysay-Ho’s ‘Laughter’ by LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL There is a portrait of the young Anita Magsaysay in her studio at Cranbrook Academy of Art : Around her are works of art in various stages of progression, all of them depicting women. On an easel behind her is a painting of two women pounding rice — one already wears the signature scarf that would distinguish all her Filipina figures. Purita Kalaw Ledesma, founder of the Art Association of the Philippines would quote her as saying, “She believes that the Filipino face is top heavy, black hair, black brows, black eyes make the top color of the head heavy. For this reason, she generally paints her women to minimize the dark area of the head or she paints the pupils of the eyes as mere dots — and to give dramatic effect, she paints her figures as if a strong light were focused from beneath.” Magsaysay-Ho started painting at eight, “sketching with crayons”. A report in the Sunday Times Magazine, after her sensational first-prize win at the Art Association of the Philippines’ influential annual competition, said that “the turning point of her life came when a group of Cossacks were guests at her grandfather’s home.” One of them, a captain named Michael, was a painter. And while he painted, he astonished her — and instantly she made up her mind to become an artist as well. After the War, she would study at the Art Students League in New York where her teacher was Vaclav Vytlacil who was recognized in the ranks of Picasso and Braque. He was also known for being one of the founders of the American Abstract Artists group. Vytlacil would always tell his students (who included Louise Bourgeois, Willem de Kooning, and Cy Twombly), “Paint what you want.” And when the young Anita produced a work showing Igorots going down a hill, it drew this comment. “I don’t care how your people dress, paint their spirit.” Anita would thus embark on a journey of a lifetime, painting gestures and emotions, captured in expressions and movements that have come to embody and capture the spirit of the Filipino Women for several generations of art-lovers. American authoress Agnes Newton Keith would share the secret of the appeal of Magsaysay- Ho’s women : “Your market women are thin, sharp, witty, loquacious. They are both cunning and generous, both skeptics and believers. You are not sorry for them because you know you don’t have to be. If your gods were wealth and soft living, you’d paint pathos and weakness into those faces, instead, you put mysticism, strength, and love and joy of life. “And I can see it in your paintings that you love the vitality and life of your people, that you understand their tenacity of enjoyment and their delight in all their senses,” she noted sagely
a. Two Women with Baskets b. Slippers hand signed and dated 1996 (lower right); dedicated ‘To dear Cora / as ever / Anita’ (lower left) each print 11” x 13 1/2” (28 cm x 34 cm) each
a. Still Life hand signed (lower right) print hand numbered 104/300 13 3/4” x 17 1/2” (35 cm x 45 cm) b. Still Life hand signed (lower right) print hand numbered 104/300 14” x 17 1/2” (36 cm x 45 cm)
Women with Chicks signed (lower left) dated 1985 oil on canvas 16" x 20" (41 cm x 51 cm) PROVENANCE Won as a raffle prize in 1985 One of Magsaysay-Ho’s significant contributions to Philippine art was her portrayal of everyday Filipino life, particularly rural scenes and the lives of ordinary people. Her paintings often depicted farmers, fisherfolk, and women engaging in everyday activities. Magsaysay-Ho had a keen eye for capturing the laborious yet resilient spirit of the Filipino people. Through her art, she celebrated their struggles, joys, and the strong sense of community that pervades rural life in the Philippines. Though one may argue that Magsaysay-Ho was not alone in the depiction of everyday lives and peoples. Her peers, which include Victorio Edades, Vicente Manansala, Galo Ocampo, were also ahead of the curve when it came to subject-matter. Much like Magsaysay-Ho, their interests were no longer confined to the grand, historic, or even the idyllic. Their farmers and workers, free from any sort of idealized connotations, farmed and worked, labored and toiled. But their representations were far from accurate. For what the Modernists were concerned with was not merely physical reproduction, but an expression of the condition of man. For the first time in recent human history, our actions and will were seemingly not animated by any other force, whether soul or spirit, but our own. The human condition was, at its very core, human. Flawed though it may be, it was malleable. It was not permanent. And thus hope sprung forth. For suffering was no longer going to come from the heavens, but from within. The Modernists embraced the idea. They welcomed with open arms the idea that man and his labors, free from a previously pre-requisite divination, were enough to change the world. But if man could change the world, couldn't women do the same thing as well? There is a sort of thematic connection between Anita’s works and the fact that she is the only woman amongst the pioneering Thirteen Moderns. Though her works were adjacent to her peers, it was only Anita that had women front and center. From fisherfolk to farmers, laundrywoman and weavers, it was only Anita that seemingly revealed that women were capable of the dignified fruits of labor. This piece depicts a much lighter and even arguably playful side to the artist. Anita is no stranger to depicting women amidst animal and farm work. One of her most iconic works, a piece titled Egg Vendors, which Leon Gallery had the privilege of offering in its Magnificent September Auction 2021, showcases her fascination with the industry. Curator Lisa Guerrero-Nakpil writes, “This eternal symbol of new life is cupped gingerly in the hands of one of them, for such hopes must be carefully nurtured and protected. Their faces, upturned and illuminated by the single lamp, also egg-shaped, are gripped in various expressions of mystical fervor. All of them peer closely, seemingly hypnotized, eyes half-shut to see more clearly. Their hands are clasped as if praying, their heads turned heavenward. One of the maidens is pictured breathless, with lips parted as if she were ready to receive the Host in sacred rites. Anita Magsaysay Ho thus creates this enchanting narrative of motherhood, women and children in this single, almost transcendental work.” But Woman with Chicks seemingly does not express the same transcendental allure of Egg Vendors. But that undoubtedly does not make it any less of a masterpiece. For what is one of art’s cardinal functions than to elicit emotion. But this time, instead of jouissance, it is joy. Pure and simple. The work comes off as friendly and approachable, as if these women are not symbols but acquaintances or friends. This mood is further exacerbated by the fact that Anita is seemingly breaking the fourth wall by having the chicks pop out of the frame and scurry around the matting. Such a technique may have been uncommon at the time, but Anita was not the only one employing it. Hundreds of kilometers away, artists such as Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Barbara Kruger embraced this technique to challenge traditional notions of art and engage the viewer in a dialogue. By disrupting the illusion of a static canvas, fourth-wall breaks allowed artists to create dynamic and immersive experiences. But what makes Anita’s work stand out, aside from it being among the few Modern Filipino works that employ the fourth-wall break, is its seemingly humorous and lighthearted use that elicits an emotion that is unarguably on par with the transcendental; happiness. Eventually, Anita would depict women in more traditional social graces and contexts. But one cannot truly appreciate the fruits of one’s labor unless one understands the very foundation it was planted on. Anita’s women, though not overtly political or social, will be remembered as the cornerstone of one of the pillars of Filipino art. (J.D.)
PROPERTY FROM THE ZITA FELICIANO COLLECTION Women with Flowers signed and dated 1993 (lower right) oil on canvas 34" x 37 1/2" (86 cm x 95 cm) PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist LITERATURE Roces, Alfredo. Anita Magsaysay-Ho: In Praise of Women (With Annotations on Paintings by Anita Magsaysay-Ho. Pasig City: The Crucible Workshop, 2005. Full-color photograph and painting description on page 184. Ong, Charlson, ed. A Sense of Serenity: Anita Magsaysay-Ho with Twelve Filipino Poets. Pasig City: The Crucible Workshop, 1996. fullcolor photograph and painting description on page 65. Anita Magsaysay-Ho is famous for depicting women at work but she also became renowned for capturing their feminine, softer side — praying, dancing, wielding graceful fans, and most of all, wreathed by flowers. She would write of girlhood memories of the Flores de Mayo (the feast of the Flowers of May), carrying bouquets to the Blessed Virgin Mary. “Our parents would prepare special clothes for us; sometimes we would even have flowers in our hair,” she would reminisce. “My sister and I offered flowers together with the daughters of my mother’s friends.” It was a special sense of sisterhood that she would thus associate with flowers; and it was for these friends in Manila’s genteel society that she would create these works. Anita, after all, was from one of the best uppercrust families, descended from one of the men who ruled the waters of Manila Bay with his ships. She was the niece of a beloved Philippine president, was raised by devout parents and attended the the best schools in both the Philippines and America. The work at hand has that same gentle delicacy that inhabited Anita’s private world. Three women are in engrossed in the most lady-like pursuit of flower-arranging. There are fine baskets, a pale celadon jar as well as a bounty of blossoms both from the Philippines (golden butterfly orchids, coral-colored anthuriums, lilies called ‘star gazers’) as well as foreign gardens (baby’s breath, daisies, rose-hued carnations). All the accoutrements of the art of fine living are here to be found. It is engaging and soothing and the best of these, familiar, all at the same time. Her biographer Alfredo Roces would, in fact, devote an entire chapter, entitled “Posy of Bloomers”, to MagsaysayHo’s interior portraits, It was a satisfying theme that animated her work through the decades. Magsaysay-Ho would move to HongKong in the mid1970s and stay 17 years. She would say, I consider this time my most productive years.” This is the era when Women with Flowers was created and one can easily imagine how it was painted for the elegant Mrs. Zita Feliciano, as lithe and svelte as any of the women that Anita Magsaysay-Ho would make iconic. Zita, who was both beloved and well-known in Manila society was one of its legendary swans who would glide through the stratosphere, at home in New York or Paris or London. The work, a gift from one of her closest friends, would properly grace her home and endow it with a very special aura.
The Good Life signed (lower right) ca. 1945 oil on wood 10” x 14” (25 cm x 36 cm) PROVENANCE Private Collection, USA León Gallery, The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2016, Makati City, 11 June 2016, Lot 84 LITERATURE Villegas, Ramon N. and Lisa Guerrero Nakpil. Houses: A Collection of Paintings of Philippine Houses. Makati City: Januario Jesus B. Atencio and 8990 Holdings, Inc., 2017. Full-color spread on pages 48 to 49 and painting description and essay on pages 47 to 48. Anita Magsaysay-Ho (May 25, 1914 - May 5, 2012) was — and is — a pre-eminent figure in the world of Filipino modern art. She was also the only female member of the Thirteen Moderns, a group of Filipino avant-garde artists. She was born in 1914 in Manila. Her father Ambrosio Magsaysay, an engineer, was Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s uncle. Anita was painting from the age of nine. She studied at the School of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines, under the tutelage of Filipino master painters Fabian de la Rosa, and his nephews Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo, as well as Ireneo Miranda and Vicente Rivera y Mir. She studied at Manila’s School of Design, under Victorio Edades and Enrique Ruiz. She then left in the 1930s to go the United States, where she studied at the New York Students’ League under Kenneth Hayes Miller, Will Barnet and Robert Ward Johnson. She also studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, under Zoltan Sepeshy. She moved to New York City, where she gave painting and drawing lessons. There, she met Robert Ho from Hong Kong. They married and moved to China, where Ho’s shipping company, Magsaysay Inc., began. The couple eventually had five children and they moved frequently because of Ho’s work. They lived in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. Wherever she lived, Anita had a studio where she could paint. Although she was eventually identified as one of the Thirteen Moderns, in the early 1940s, the influence of her teacher Fernando Amorsolo was still clearly visible, both in terms of subject and technique. Later, her work evolved toward modernism. In the work at hand, here is the commodious bahay kubo, the silid and batalan extending well behind, quite doubling the size of the structure. The nipa is thickly bundled, ensuring dry interiors when it rained. It is not the height of the dry season, for the foliage around the house is lush. The trellis to the right is heavy with leaf, vine and yield. Father and son seem to be resting: one is leaning nonchalantly, and the boy is seated on his haunches. It is around midday, with the sun high up in the sky, with luminous clouds. One could almost hear the chickens clucking as they scratch the ground. It is an Amorsolo subject, but treated so differently. The brushstrokes are strong, the colors are deftly applied. The technique is brute, but the charm of the rural scene comes across. The artist's Studio. Cranbrook Academy o f Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Critic E. Aguilar Cruz included her among the Neo-Realists, which later evolved into the Philippine Art Gallery group, which also numbered other women artists, Lyd Arguilla and Nena Saguil. Through the 1950s, she consistently won top awards from the Art Association of the Philippines. Her compositions emphasized movement and bustling interaction by means of bold, vigorous brushstrokes, and strong tonal contrasts of light and dark, particularly when she was using egg tempera. Magsaysay-Ho’s most famous works are those identified with the everyday lives of Filipino women, who characteristically wore scarves, had slanted eyes, in angular poses. In her old age, she could not work with oils anymore, the fumes overcame her. She continued to paint until her 2009 stroke. She died three years later, just three weeks before her 98th birthday. Her paintings continue to command the highest prices for works by a Filipino artist. This painting is important because its shows Anita Magsaysay’s style in transition. — from the essay on the work by Ramon N. Villegas
