Poverty and suffering are often depicted by distorted shapes in Hernando Ruiz Ocampo's abstract paintings. These pieces of Hernando Ruiz Campo's artwork were created after WWII had left the artist's homeland in devastation. Ocampo's early paintings were often panned by viewers who didn't understand his need for escapism, but they introduced the Philippines to the Neo-Realist art movement.
Hernando Ruiz Ocampo paintings for sale offer bright yellows, purples, and greens that were present in traditional Filipino art during Ocampo's career. In the 50s, Hernando Ruiz Ocampo's abstract paintings took on a more positive outlook when he began painting domestic still life images, such as pottery, fruit, and fish. One of his largest projects was the painting of the Imelda Marcos Monument in the Philippines Cultural Center. Escape reality by viewing artists' mind-bending abstract paintings for sale through Invaluable.
Untitled signed and dated 1978 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 11” x 8 1/2” (28 cm x 22 cm) One of the pioneers of Modern Philippine Art, Hernando R. Ocampo, became known for his magnificent abstract and organic visual language that redefined Philippine art. His work combined innovation with a distinct Filipino sensibility, revolving around themes of nature and biological growth, transformation and evolution, and the harmony between organic forms and abstractions. Even in simple sketches, his renowned confined and flowing lines reflect his lifelong fascination with organic movement and simplified forms. His contributions made him recognized as one of the country’s natural artists in the visual arts. (Mark John Castañeda)
PROPERTY FROM THE D ON V ICENTE REV ILLA COLLECTI ON a.) Untitled oil on wood 11" x 8 1/2" (28 cm x 22 cm) b.) Untitled signed and dated 1971 (lower right) oil on wood 11" x 8 1/2" (28 cm x 22 cm) Renowned for his signature biomorphic abstractions rooted in nature, Hernando Ocampo presents two beautiful paintings that showcase his iconic art style—laid out with interlocking, irregular shapes that fit like a puzzle, delivering a sense of interconnectedness and harmony throughout the visual piece. Organic, dynamic, and expressive, Ocampo attempts to combine nature’s sensibilities with biomorphic abstraction. With interlocking curves that feel alive—akin to living tissues, leaves, or microscopic organisms in sync with each other. By using textured greens, earthy tones, and muted yellows to mimic the lush colors of tropical landscapes, as well as the striking shades of oranges red and blacks on the other that gives a heavier and tense mood—almost volcanic and subterranean, it can be inferred that both artworks—which exhibits irregular shapes that seem to mold together like puzzles—successfuly depict two drastic representation of nature: one suggests growth, harmony and organic rhythm while the other focus on the rigid heat, intensity and tension that allows change and transformation. Each piece is different in representation, yet equally necessary to describe nature in its entirety. Through these masterpieces, Ocampo perfectly highlights nature’s growth and vitality, interconnectedness, and its complex harmony—presenting nature itself as a visually structured abstraction and exploring how colors and form alone can evoke different emotional and sensory experiences. (Mark John A. Castañeda)
Color Study signed and dated 1952 (lower right) oil on cardboard 17 1/2" x 12" (44 cm x 30 cm) PROVENANCE Private collection, USA The early 1950s proved to be especially crucial for the flowering of Philippine modernism. Within a span of a year, between 1953 and 1954, two landmark exhibitions were mounted by the legendary Philippine Art Gallery, the first artistic space dedicated entirely to the cause of modern art in the country (it was the Filipino modernist's safe space, a haven for unbridled creativity and camaraderie with like-minded people). The first was the First Philippine Cultural Exhibition held initially at the Carnegie Endowment International Center in New York City before being showcased next at the American International Underwriters Corporation, on famous, bustling Wall Street. PAG matriarch and exhibition organizer Lyd Arguilla recounted in her article "The Little Wheel Grinds On" published in Weekly Women's Magazine, "Overnight, in a lively glow of colors, the works of our artists burst upon the unsuspecting passers-by. The cop around the corner sauntered over, beaming, "Gosh! Wall Street was never like this!" But the exhibition that really made a dent in the art scene was the cultural milestone, the First Exhibition of Non-Objective Art in Tagala in December 1953. In both shows, Hernando R. Ocampo was notably present, rising to prominence in his home country as the foremost exponent of non-objective art. He was christened by critic Magtanggul Asa (Aurelio Alvero) as the "Father of Non-Objective Art," with him writing: "Ocampo's energy and prolificness have proved most vital to the cause of non-objective art in this country." Ocampo, along with Fernando Zobel, notably led the non-objective art show, which demonstrated Filipino modernism at its most avant-garde, eschewing the need for objective and cognizable representation and elevating the merit of the plastic elements of painting, which are essentially the nucleus of the modernist's continuing strive to liberate Philippine art from the shackles of classicism. Ocampo's Color Study is a vibrant relic from that exciting period in the history of Philippine modernism, its colorful struggles and meritorious, bold efforts to show that this new style is the fitting visual language that can articulate well the situation and needs of the post-war climate. Color Study noticeably places emphasis on the plastic elements. The work belongs to Ocampo's "Transition Period," which his biographer and fellow Veronican and literary compadre Angel G. de Jesus described in the artist's monograph as follows: "Non-objective painting became his main interest…His figures and natural objects became simplified. He eliminated details of the human anatomy, disregarded perspective, and his forms became increasingly distorted. His objective was to flatten planes and achieve unity of composition and design through a combination of hues, tonal values, and textures. The painting became a living, organic, logical unit." Ocampo's Color Study manifests the artist's lifelong obsession with color: vibrant, tropical hues that evoke the natural hues of his motherland. Ocampo's non-objective paintings stretch the plastic elements of painting to their limits; that is, they brim with horror vacui, capturing the Filipino's "baroque-ness," his natural inclination towards maximalism, but this time through the interesting interaction among the plastic elements. In the work, tension is introduced, with each of the plastic elements depicted in a chaotic yet theatrical interplay—the luxurious colors, expressive lines, and seemingly tactile, breathing forms—all dancing and harmonizing in one beautiful mess. Pure design, for Ocampo, is an inherent quality in any work of art that no literary or philosophical explanations can supersede or fully explain. For non-objectivists, a painting's design and colors are first sensed and grasped rather than its symbolism or meaning. Especially in the post-war context, in which the Filipino soul had been traumatized and wounded, the enigmatic and riveting waltz of the plastic elements could be a first step towards healing and catharsis, a quick and immediate respite from the ruins and desolation of war. "The failure of a child of six or an expert shoemaker to appreciate a Michelangelo, a Rembrandt, an El Greco, a Matisse, an Amorsolo, or an Edades cannot in any way detract from or add to the aesthetic qualities inherent in any of the aforementioned paintings," he wrote in staunch defense of modern art in his article "How I look at pictures," published in This Week Magazine in 1948. The materiality of color is most important for Ocampo in this painting, emphasizing a variety of textures highlighted by the free-flowing lines that form organic shapes, thus breathing life into the composition. Color Study encapsulates the very foundation of non-objective painting: to appreciate it for what it is and understand it through its plastic elements rather than to struggle to understand it metaphorically.
Mask (Possibly "The Clown" / "Mask for a Lady" signed and dated 1961 (lower right) oil on canvas 28" x 22" (71 cm x 56 cm) PROVENANCE Private collection, Manila LITERATURE Hufana, Alejandrino G., ed. Pamana 13 June 1974: A Cultural Quarterly Published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1974. Listed on page 18 as “201. THE CLOWN” or "206. MASK FOR A LADY" under the artist's list of paintings. Tiongson, Nicanor G., ed. Artista ng Bayan 1991. Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila. 1991. Listed on page 36 as “201. THE CLOWN” or "206. MASK FOR A LADY" under HR Ocampo's "List of Paintings (Partial)". Hernando R. Ocampo’s “Transitional Period,” spanning from 1945 to 1963, came right on the heels of a particularly harrowing period of his life. From February to October 1945, he was detained in Muntinlupa by the American Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) on the accusation of being a collaborator, with his companions including Claro M. Recto, Jose P. Laurel, and Victorio Edades. Even more harrowing, three months into his detention, his first wife, Irene Illorato, perished, leaving their three children motherless. Following Liberation, it took Ocampo nearly five years to get back on his feet. Though he immediately found employment as Chief of the Publishing and Script Departments at Palaris Films and Fernando Poe Productions, it was only around the turn of the decade in the 1950s that Ocampo entered a period of productivity both in painting and in writing. This release from emotional tension he acknowledges from the stabilizing force of Cresencia Valenzuela, a singer whom he met through his work as a director for serial soap opera dramas on the radio, and his eventual wife. During this period, non-objective painting became the artist’s main interest. His style changed, becoming increasingly abstract as the subject matter became less and less recognizable. His works were simplified into cleancut geometric lines and overlapping planes, becoming what his biographer Angel G. de Jesus described as a “living, organic, logical unit.” Ocampo’s Mask series breathed its first breath in this momentous period of his artistic career, with its earliest iterations dating as far back as the 1950s. He was asked once about the origins of the leitmotifs of his art, wherein he replied: “From nature. From everything around me. Fish forms from the fried fish we eat at our table. Leaf forms from the plants all around, and the flames or tongues of fire evolved from the leaf forms. Masks from a book I picked up on African masks, and then from another book on the art of the South Pacific for which I definitely felt an affinity… I paint from nostalgia and specifically from memories of my childhood.” (Emphasis added by the author) Indeed, it seems as though these masks, or Totem poles, left such great inspiration to Ocampo, as evidenced in this 1961 piece. Here, Ocampo references the specific curves and distinct exaggerations of the masks, still tethering between his “Proletarian” period of relatively figurative works and his non-objective “Mutants” period. One of the most remarkable things about Ocampo’s body of work is that it is he who arguably made the most Filipino painting of his generation. A self-educated local artist, he refused offers to study abroad. He had never seen the original works of foreign artists; instead, he learned of them through reproductions in photos and books. Critics unanimously agree that he is the most original and the foremost exponent of the Filipino style, with Emmanuel Torres’s November 5, 1954 issue of Weekly Women’s Magazine saying this of Ocampo: “In spite of hostile opposition, Ocampo has for the last years produced a substantial body of paintings which are the most daring and original in the Orient.” Ocampo’s Mask series was created at the perfect junction between his objective and abstract periods. He brings a distinct Filipino twist to an otherwise foreign cultural symbol. As Torres writes, his “subject matter is completely incidental in favor of a purer visual language of lines, color orchestration, spaces, masses, and textures.” His works transcend time, space, and cultures. (Hannah Andrea Valiente)
Hernando Ruiz Ocampo (1911-1978) | Abstraction, 1977 Watercolor on Paper Signed: Signed lower left “H. R. Ocampo ’77”. Dimensions: Framed: 60.3 × 72 cm | 23.7 × 28.3 in Artwork: 46 × 57.5 cm | 18.1 × 22.6 in Provenance: Private Collection, Spain. Condition: Good vintage condition with some signs of wear. Framed. Conditions of Sale: All lots are sold as is. See Section 4 of our Terms and Conditions for return policy. All inquiries must be made prior to bidding, as no further details can be provided after the sale. By placing a bid, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms and Conditions in full. Shipping: Aurora & Athena does not provide in-house shipping. The successful buyer arranges shipping directly with a company of their choice. For shipments outside the EU, Spanish export tax may apply to certain higher-value artworks; no export tax applies within the EU. Any such tax is payable by the buyer. Please refer to our Shipping & Export Information page for further details. -- Hernando Ruiz Ocampo’s Abstraction (1977) is a beautiful example of the Filipino master’s exploration of organic form and color as containers of emotion and rhythm. The painting is a symphony of curves — overlapping and interlocking like fragments of living matter suspended in air. Ocampo’s colors of amber, coral and turquoise is earthy and cosmic at the same time, echoing the dynamism of his homeland’s natural world. Done in watercolor on paper, Abstraction shows Ocampo’s mastery of transparency and layering. The paint seems to breathe across the surface, creating transitions of tone that give depth and movement. Each line flows into the next with a musical cadence, a reflection of the artist’s lifelong quest for visual harmony from chaos. Abstraction (1977) is from the mature period of Ocampo’s work when his abstraction became more meditative. Here form becomes energy and color becomes light — a distillation of his idea that art can reveal the inner structure of life itself.
PROPERTY FROM THE VIC SALTA COLLECTION Abstract signed and dated 1974 (lower right) watercolor on paper 15” x 22” (38 cm x 56 cm) Largely a self-taught artist, Hernando R. Ocampo’s works are best described as equivocally and truly Filipino. With his usage of vivid colors and bold movements, it is not difficult to glimpse the yellow hot sun and the cool blue skies in the hues. This 1974 Abstract echoes the yellow-green hues of a hot summer afternoon. Ocampo’s colors express what form, texture, and depth would have — here, like in many of his abstract works, Ocampo does not shy away from overpowering hues. Indeed, he places them at the center stage, letting these vivid colors take the space they need to shine. (Hannah Andrea Valiente)
PROPERTY FROM THE VIC SALTA COLLECTION Abstract signed and dated 1969 (lower right) watercolor on paper 15” x 22” (38 cm x 56 cm) Color is the primary element of Hernando R. Ocampo’s art. His canvases are filled with a vibrant spectacle of irregular geometric forms. A balanced mix of warm and subdued palette, Abstraction is a testament to Ocampo’s unrivaled artistry and sublime understanding of color. Although his works may appear simple, they result from the artist’s meticulous consideration of how each hue, tone, and saturation affects one another and influences the painting’s tension and motion. Notably, his works lack any actual objects. Yet they manage to capture people’s attention and recognition, leaving a lasting legacy befitting one of the forerunners of modern art in the Philippines. (Jessica Magno)
Untitled signed and dated 1956 (lower left) oil on paper 11” x 8 1/4” (28 cm x 21 cm) Acclaimed abstractionist Hernando R. Ocampo’s works are rife with novel imagery that seems to “oscillate, quiver, inflame and multiply,” as though biological mutations. With his early works initially reflecting social realities and the human struggle, his 1940s and 1950s were characterized by his shift toward abstraction. Rather than depicting recognizable figurative subjects, Ocampo uses colors to evoke emotional resonance, his hues doing what forms, shapes, and perspective would have in other works. This 1956 work, though not yet in his now-recognizable abstract non-configurative style, still echoes Ocampo’s intuitive hues. Shades of orange and yellow bleed into each other, with ochre, black, and red supporting as secondary colors. His distinct color palette has given rise to a unique visual language, notably and completely Ocampo’s, even at first glance. (Hannah Andrea Valiente)
Hernando Ruiz Ocampo (1911-1978) A SONG FOR SEPTEMBER, 1975 Acrylic on canvas, size 76,2 x 101,6 cm (30 x 40 inches) Frame dimensions 92 x 117 cm (36 1/4 x 46 inches) Signed and dated lower right. Artist’s inscription on verso Hernando R. Ocampo is a Filipino National Artist in the visual arts. Ocampo was a leading radical modernist artist in the Philippines. He was a member of the Saturday Group of artists (also known as the Taza de Oro Group), and was one of the pre-war Thirteen Moderns, a group of modernist artists founded by Victorio C. Edades. His art is described to be "abstract compositions of biological forms that seemed to oscillate, quiver, inflame and multiply" like mutations. His works were exhibited in Washington, New York, London, and Tokyo, among others. Awards received include: Republic Cultural Award in 1965; Patnubayng Sining at Kalinangan Award in 1969; Diwa ng Lahi Award in 1976; and Gawad CCP para sa Sining Award in 1979. Ocampo died at the age of 67 in Caloocan. He was posthumously declared as a National Artist for the Visual Arts in 1991.
PROPERTY FROM THE NIKKI COSETENG COLLECTION Kalaanan signed and dated 1968 (lower right) oil on canvas 30" x 40" (76 cm x 102 cm) LITERATURE De Jesus, Angel G. H.R. Ocampo: The Artist as Filipino. Manila: Heritage Publishing, 1979. Black-and-white illustration and painting description on page 150. Villegas, Ramon N. and Lisa Guerrero Nakpil. Trove: The Coseteng Collection, The Life and Art of H.R. Ocampo. Published to accompany the exhibition of the same title at León Gallery on 21 January 2017. Makati City: León Gallery, 2017. Full-color spread on pages 72 - 73 and painting description on pages 70, 72. Hufana, Alejandrino G., ed. Pamana 13 June 1974: A Cultural Quarterly Published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1974. Listed on page 19 as “274. KALAANAN” under the artist's list of paintings. Tiongson, Nicanor G., ed. Artista ng Bayan 1991. Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila. 1991. Listed on page 37 as "274. Kalaanan" under HR Ocampo's "List of Paintings (Partial)". EXHIBITED The Luz Gallery, Legaspi - Luz - Ocampo (Three-man Exhibit), Makati, 7 – 19 November 1968 León Gallery, Trove: The Coseteng Collection, The Life and Art of H.R. Ocampo, Makati City, 21 January 2017 industry, led by the famed and internationally exported Ang Tibay leather shoes and slippers, and its iconic Art Decostyle factory, which was once Asia's premier shoe factory. Its founder, influential industrialist Don Toribio Teodoro, was also born in Grace Park and would acquire the iconic Manila Grand Opera House during the war. Other shoe factories on 5th Avenue included Jacinto Rubber Shoes and El Porvenir (Elpo) Rubber Shoes, owned by Don Tomas Geronimo, who pioneered rubber shoe manufacturing in the country. Grace Park remains a major commercial center of Caloocan Representing a return to form The scintillating greens of Kalaanan capture the district's prime position as an economic lifeblood of Ocampo's beloved Caloocan. Contrasted with the somber and often disorienting palette of Ocampo's preceding Mutants Period, which spoke to the era's nuclear anxieties, his colors now seem "singing": luscious, warm, and sensual, resonating with the artist's newfound freedom. Kalaanan represents an emancipated Ocampo. Borrowing from the barrio legend of how Kalaanan got its name, the work resonates with Ocampo exalting his cherished Caloocan, dedicating an entire body of work symbolizing his elated return to painting, his own cherie amour. Caloocan was where Ocampo first experienced the searing realities of life, early on putting a heavy burden upon his juvenile shoulders as he went on the streets polishing the shoes of the nearby Maypajo and Lerma cabarets’ local and foreign customers, and later on working in the former as a cashier, regularly encountering rowdy American soldiers and sailors being beaten up by the local gangsters. When he started to become a writer before the war struck, Ocampo wrote two short stories dedicated to Maypajo and its people—“The Legend of Maypajo” and “Street Scene in Maypajo”—his own locality in Caloocan and the district southwest of Grace Park. The city would become the silent witness to all his vocational frustrations, familial struggles, his profound empathy for the working class manifested in his stories and early paintings, the regrets brought by the abandonment of dreams to study abroad just to prioritize his family’s immediate everyday needs (Ocampo was the original grantee of the 1950 French government scholarship that ultimately went to his friend, Manansala), and the little triumphs as he forged his dreams of pursuing his soul's creative passion into a fully realized truth. Once the target of vile criticisms for his compellingly original and daring blend of form and color, Ocampo is now celebrated for his oeuvre, which harmonizes with and is attuned to the agitating desires of a people towards the reclamation of agency, identity, and autonomy in a discordant, post-colonial society.
a.) The Plower signed and dated 1945 (lower left) titled in ink (verso) oil on wood 12 1/4" x 9 1/2" (31 cm x 24 cm) b.) Pounding Rice at Twilight signed and dated 1945 (lower right) titled in ink (verso) oil on wood 12" x 9 1/2" (30 cm x 24 cm) c.) Madonna of the Slums signed and dated 1945 (lower right) titled in ink (verso) oil on wood 12" x 9 1/2" (30 cm x 24 cm) d.) Forced Labor signed and dated 1945 (lower left) titled in ink (verso) oil on wood 12" x 9 1/2" (30 cm x 24 cm) e.) Grief signed and dated 1945 (lower left) titled in pencil (verso) oil on wood 13 1/2" x 11" (34 cm x 28 cm) PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist by Arnold I. Margulis, a World War II private of the US Army, during Ocampo's incarceration at the Bilibid in Muntinlupa in 1945 LITERATURE Hufana, Alejandrino G., ed. Pamana 13 June 1974: A Cultural Quarterly Published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1974. Listed on page 14 as “11. POUNDING RICE” under the artist's list of paintings. Hufana, Alejandrino G., ed. Pamana 13 June 1974: A Cultural Quarterly Published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1974. Listed on page 14 as “13. GRIEF” under the artist's list of paintings. Arnold Margulis was born on July 7, 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Jewish parents Saul and Sarah Margulis, both Missouri natives. The family had settled in San Diego, California by the time Arnold turned 5, as evidenced by a record from the 1930 US Census. Margulis had already completed four years of high school and was in his first year as an architecture student when he enlisted in the US Army on his 18th birthday, July 7, 1943. Like other enlisted soldiers, Margulis was to serve for the duration of World War II, plus an additional six months, subject to the discretion of the US President or a law passed by Congress. Margulis would be assigned to the Philippines, and not much is known of his war exploits until the Liberation of Manila in 1945. H.R. Ocampo and Margulis' lives would intersect at Bilibid, where the former was incarcerated due to false accusations of being a collaborator, and the latter, possibly as a wounded patient in the Bilibid infirmary or as a military staff member in charge of overseeing the inmates' daily activities. Margulis would then acquire 18 of Ocampo's oil works, painted on stripped army cots and some on wooden panels—these five paintings at hand included— and bring them home to San Diego. Margulis then returned to peaceful, civilian life and established his own self-service laundry business with his wife, Sarah Calechman, whom he had married just before his enlistment. The two would divorce in January 1973, and Margulis remarried in August 1977 to fellow Californian, Angela Clifford. Margulis died on July 13, 2001, at the age of 76. (Adrian Maranan)
Hernando Ruiz Ocampo (1911–1978) | Philippines Abstraction, 1977 Watercolor on paper Signed: lower left “H. R. Ocampo ’77”. Dimensions: Framed: 60.3 × 72 cm | 23.7 × 28.3 in Artwork: 46 × 57.5 cm | 18.1 × 22.6 in Provenance: Private Collection, Spain. Condition: Good vintage condition with some signs of wear. Framed. Shipping: Aurora & Athena does not ship in-house but assists buyers in arranging shipping with trusted providers. Coordination starts after full payment, with all costs and risks on the buyer. Estimated delivery: Within the EU: 3–7 days | Outside the EU: Approx. 2–4 weeks (destination-dependent). Conditions of Sale: All lots are sold as is. See Section 4 of our Terms and Conditions for return policy. All inquiries must be made prior to bidding, as no further details can be provided after the sale. By placing a bid, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms and Conditions in full. -- Signed: lower left “H. R. Ocampo ’77”. Hernando Ruiz Ocampo’s Abstraction (1977) is a striking example of the Filipino master’s exploration of organic form and colour as vessels of rhythm and emotion. The composition unfolds as a symphony of curves — overlapping and interlocking like fragments of living matter suspended in air. Ocampo’s palette of amber, coral, and turquoise feels both earthy and cosmic, echoing the dynamism of his homeland’s natural world. Executed in watercolor on paper, Abstraction demonstrates Ocampo’s mastery of transparency and layering. The pigment seems to breathe across the surface, producing transitions of tone that generate depth and movement. Each line flows into the next with musical cadence — a reflection of the artist’s lifelong pursuit of harmony within chaos. Created during Ocampo’s mature period, Abstraction (1977) distills his vision of art as revelation — where form becomes energy, and colour becomes light. It is a meditative statement on the inner architecture of life itself.
HERNANDO RUIZ OCAMPO (1911-1978) Untitled 1975 acrylic on wood, signed and dated 'HR Ocamp '75' lower right; with personal inscription and dedication on the reverse dated May 1, 1975 12 x 9in (30.4 x 22.8cm)
Untitled signed and dated 1968 (lower right) oil on wood 11" x 8 1/4" (28 cm x 21 cm) PROVENANCE Private collection, Manila One of the most influential figures in Philippine modern art, Hernando R. Ocampo's piece showcases a glimpse of his experimentation. It illustrates an abstract view of interlocking rectangular and organic shapes in different sizes, laid and tessellated to create a dynamic grid-like structure. When looking at the color scheme, the earthy muted tones are dominant throughout the canvas, creating a sober and introspective mood. Although the piece is far from his signature biomorphic style that mimics forms found in any organic matter or nature, it is clear that there is still organic interplay between the shapes and edges. (Mark John Castañeda)
a.) Untitled ca.1960s oil on wood 12" x 9" (30 cm x 23 cm) b.) Untitled ca.1960s oil on wood 12" x 9" (30 cm x 23 cm) PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED LADY PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist There is perhaps no better artist to hail as a forerunner to the Philippine modernist master than H.R. Ocampo. A self-taught local artist, Ocampo chose to stay within the Philippines instead of following the footsteps of contemporaries who chose to study all across the globe. Instead of foreign instructors, Ocampo hones his craft through reading art books and magazines, and tuning in to the world around him. As such, his abstracts emulate the tropical lushness of our country, a scenery which Emmanuel Torres relays as “the most daring and original in the Orient.” These two paintings exhibit the originality that made Ocampo’s works a beacon for his fellow modernists. One in shades of warm tones and the other in green and brown, it is not hard to envision the colors as a sunny afternoon out in the forest. A true Filipino artist at heart, H.R. Ocampo’s works echo the vibrancy of the Philippine soil, rich with culture, history, and community. (Hannah Valiente)
PROPERTY FROM THE DON VICENTE “TIKING” H. LOPEZ COLLECTION Mother and Child signed and dated 1971 (lower right and verso) inscribed "For Tiking, Who undoubtedly deserves the title of "Art Patron of the Year," 1971 Nanding 8/21/71" (verso) oil on canvas 24" x 20" (61 cm x 51 cm) PROVENANCE A gift from the artist to Don Tiking Lopez LITERATURE De Jesus, Angel G. H.R. Ocampo: The Artist as Filipino. Quezon City: Heritage Publishing, 1979. Black-and-white illustration and painting description on page 115. Tiongson, Nicanor G., ed. Artista ng Bayan 1991. Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila. 1991. Black-and-white illustration on page 38. Hernando R. Ocampo's Mother and Child is a precious gift by the artist to his dear friend and art patron, Don Vicente "Tiking" H. Lopez, Jr. At the back of the painting, Ocampo inscribed a handwritten dedication: "For Tiking, Who undoubtedly deserves the title of "Art Patron of the Year," 1971 Nanding 8/21/71" In his dedication, Ocampo referred to Don Tiking as "Art Patron of the Year." In late June 1971, a group of young artists who had Don Tiking as their art patron held an exhibition at the Nayong Pilipino in celebration of Negros Week. These artists included Justin Nuyda, Ibarra de la Rosa, Angelito Antonio, Sofronio Y. Mendoza, and Antonio Austria. A Manila Bulletin article dated 26 June 1971 wrote of this exhibition, "But perhaps, the most interesting presentation will be the latest works of a group of young artists who look up to Vicente Lopez, Jr. as their art patron.” The article continues, "Although he is better known in the business world as a successful executive, Lopez is actually one of the country's avid art collectors. "He has recently converted his hacienda in San Carlos City into a haven for artists who devote themselves to perfecting techniques. "Lopez today boasts of one of the biggest collections of Filipino paintings in the country today. His office at the Elena Apartments in Ermita has become converted into an art gallery," the article concludes. Two months prior, in April 1971, some of the artists mentioned above also participated in an exhibition sponsored by painter-critic Alfredo Roces at F. Sionil Jose's Solidaridad Galleries. Nuyda and De la Rosa, alongside Johnny Altomonte, Angelito David, and Francis Yap, visited the town of Bagawinis in Negros Oriental on a painting trip sponsored by Don Tiking. Roces wrote in his The Sunday Times column that these artists’ “landscape show entirely distinct personalities viewing one landscape setting with entirely different eyes and styles. While there is no cohesive whole, it helps provide a glimpse at efforts to keep alive landscape painting in this country.” Don Tiking very much loved the countryside, and what better way for him to celebrate and pay tribute to the bounties of the fertile land than immortalizing them in landscape paintings through his protégés, especially at a time when abstract, hard-edge painting was at the forefront and the creative traditions of the past were deliberately being forgotten. Going to the countryside to draw from life and nature were deemed old-fashioned, as the younger generation of artists then were seemingly in a rush to paint, heedlessly delve into abstraction, and have their works immediately exhibited, ignoring that nature is an artist’s best teacher. Don Tiking promoted this ideal of honing one’s art by visiting the countryside through his “art children.” It is just fitting for Ocampo to gift this painting of a mother and child to Don Tiking in celebration of the two successive exhibitions of his protégés. The painting is a testament to Don Tiking's genuine goodwill to these artists, like a mother rearing her children to the full flowering of their talents. Several of Don Tiking's "art children" have already been veritable icons of Filipino art, with each having their own legacies of modernist brilliance. (Adrian Maranan)
Torso signed and dated 1963 (lower left) oil on canvas 40" x 30" (102 cm x 76 cm) PROVENANCE The Luz Gallery Sotheby's, Modern Art Evening Sale, Hong Kong, 31 March 2018, Lot 1043 LITERATURE Hufana, Alejandrino G., ed. Pamana 13 June 1974: A Cultural Quarterly Published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1974. Black-and-white illustration on page 10. “Surely, [Ocampo] is more Filipino than those painters who merely capture the surface aspects of a nipa hut or an Ifugao or the blossoms of a fire tree fronting a church. While these painters have captured the obvious, Ocampo has filtered the color and rhythm of our life and transmuted them into the pulsation of our heart's blood.” —R I C A R E D O D E M E T I L L O, “ H E R N A N D O O C A M P O : S Y M B O L I C PA I N T E R ,” WO M A N A N D T H E H O M E , 26 A P R I L 1956 Throughout his career, critics had always raved about how Ocampo had never set foot abroad and studied under Western institutions, as his peers had, but developed the most original works by a Filipino artist. Honored with titles, such as "High Priest of Modern Painting," "Vicar of Modern Painting," and even "The Most Controversial" of the Neo-Realists, Ocampo certainly earned his rightful place in Philippine art history not only through his dazzling tropical colors and graceful, "living" forms but more so, his constant exploration of the indigenous. Art critic Eric Torres wrote in his November 1954 article "Growth of an artist" in the Weekly Women's Magazine: "In a more important sense, Ocampo earns the distinction of being the first to have successfully evolved an idiom, which does not rely so much on the physical accidents of Philippine subject matter (carabaos, dalagas in native garment, and salakot, etc.) as on the 'forms,' the recurrent motifs representative of the diverse cultural patterns in the Philippines, Ifugao, Moro, Oriental and Occidental motifs. The way he has integrated all these apparently clashing decorative elements into plastic order is a feat no Filipino painter has ever done before." Painted in 1963, Torso falls under Ocampo's "Transitional Period" (1945 to 1963), which his biographer, Angel de Jesus, described as the phase where Ocampo, progressing from his "Proletarian Period" (1934 to 1945) of povertystricken humanity, "eliminated details of the human anatomy, disregarded perspective, and his forms became increasingly distorted…The painting became a living, organic, logical unit." In Torso, Ocampo depicts the trunk of an anthropomorphic figure, which evokes the wooden statues representing the ancestor spirits of indigenous Philippine folk religions. The image brings to mind the tawtaw of the Pala'wan people, the bul'ul of the Ifugao, the tao-tao of the Tagalogs, the diuata of the Visayans, the Manaog of the Mandayas of Mindanao, and even the Angono petroglyphs, the oldest known works of art in the country. The search for an indigenous expression in Philippine art became a primary interest for Ocampo, who, together with his friends and fellow Neo-Realists Legaspi and Manansala, "devoted themselves to the study of Philippine forms [beginning in the early 1950s]—Igorot wood carvings, Muslim designs, etc." reported This Week Magazine in its 21 September 1958 issue. Many of Ocampo's sketches, stretching back from his PAG years, show his obsession with totem forms. This interest primarily came from the eager search for "Filipinism" in painting during that time, an outcome of the war's cultural destruction. While Manansala and Legaspi both looked up to the Filipino masses for creative inspiration, Ocampo took to the indigenous idols, our lush tropical colors, our rich and diverse cultures, and the native flora and fauna. In this context, Ocampo's Torso therefore becomes a cultural mosaic, a montage of our folk identity. Notice the different forms Ocampo rendered inside the central figure, seemingly evoking folk totems and anting-antings (amulets) that channel power through the spirits of ancestors and supernatural deities. The work does not represent a singular anito nor does it represent a single indigenous group. Ocampo's Torso espouses the notion that our indigenous identity is best expressed artistically by deriving inspiration from our myriad cultures and acknowledging our diverse ingenuity. As our forefathers once venerated the spirits of their ancestors—who, in many Philippine cultures, are believed to reside in nature—so too in this work by Ocampo, who once said that nature and everyone around him are the primary inspiration for his art. It is in Ocampo's art that our native expressions of honoring those who birthed us and their folk traditions, which continue to shape and influence our modern society, are collectively portrayed and accorded reverence. This would become a point of transition for Ocampo towards his Visual Melody paintings, his loving ode to the vibrant Filipino spirit. (Adrian Maranan)
This striking abstract acrylic on paper was painted by Hernando Ruiz Ocampo, a listed Filipino artist. It is titled "Abstract". 21" x 27" unframed, just matted. Signed lower right.
PROPERTY FORMERLY IN THE NIKKI COSETENG COLLECTION Revelation V signed and dated 1978 (lower right) oil on canvas 24" x 32" (61 cm x 81 cm) PROVENANCE Nikki Coseteng Mariles Cacho Romulo, thence by descent LITERATURE De Jesus, Angel G. H.R. Ocampo: The Artist as Filipino. Quezon City: Heritage Publishing House, 1979. Black-and-white illustration and painting description on page 94. Hernando R. Ocampo’s Revelation V, painted within the year of his untimely death in December 1978, is quintessentially Ocampo from its color sensibilities to his composition. Lauded for his immediate and arresting control over his hues, Revelation V follows the ranks of Ocampo’s reverent works as his usage of tropical colors makes the works “glow from within,” a staggering usage of light quite unique to the Philippines. Similar to Fernando Amorsolo’s’ captivating Philippine sunlight, the brightness of Ocampo’s works echoes the same sentiments – that is, his works, like so many of the eminent artists before him, capture the Philippines and its brightness quite accurately. Ocampo is mainly a self-taught artist, and unlike many of his contemporaries, he opted to stay in the Philippines, refusing multiple offers of sponsored overseas studies in favor of cultivating his own visual language. It can be argued, then, that Ocampo’s works are truly and fully Filipino. “Ocampo’s life generally parallels the character of his painting: a melting pot of East and West,” Manuel Duldulao wrote in Contemporary Philippine Art. “His plastic language draws its content from native sources and its mode from foreign currents – especially from the concepts of the Bauhaus and color theories of Albers – arriving at a personal idiom that is somewhere between Expressionism and Impressionism.” Indeed, Ocampo’s Revelation V is a testament to the artist’s lasting legacy. At the forefront of the modernism movement in the Philippines, Ocampo’s works championed these so-called “Western” practices and proved that they, too, are at their core truly Filipino. (Hannah Valiente)
Make Haste Slowly signed and dated 1978 (lower right) acrylic on canvas 30" x 40" (76 cm x 102 cm) PROVENANCE Private Collection, Manila Hernando R. Ocampo’s Make Haste Slowly is one of the pioneering Filipino non-objectivist and modernist’s last works, painted months before his untimely death on December 28, 1978 due to a heart attack at his home in Maypajo, Caloocan. The work marked a brief period of experimentation for Ocampo, who, in an article written by critic Leonidas V. Benesa for the Philippines Daily Express (12 May 1978), had been derided by art critics and connoisseurs for his marked lack of creativity and innovation. Benesa wrote that the critics said, “Ocampo is no longer as creative as he used to be, or that in any case, he is on a plateau, basking in the adulation of admirers.” Beyond his critics, Ocampo’s experimentation in his final years was brought about by one fateful meeting of the First Friday Group at the house of Vicente Manansala in Binangonan. While having their usual chitchats, Cesar Legaspi, wrote Benesa, “suddenly lashed out at both the host and Ocampo for having allowed themselves to fall into the rot of complacency and repetition." Another article, this time in Journal (23 April 1978), reported that the ever-reserved and soft-spoken Legaspi “suddenly lost his cool and started berating Manansala, then Ocampo, and almost everyone else around. It was a shock to everyone, and Ocampo virtually thrilled in it, seeing it as a good sign that his introverted friend has long at last gone around to expressing himself—as a human being and an artist.” Angel G. de Jesus, in his “Vignettes” column on Business Day, reported that Legaspi said the following words, “The trouble with you, Nanding, is that you are thinking like an old man. You don’t experiment anymore.” De Jesus then followed, “A postscript to the incident was the explanation given by Betty, Cesar’s wife, that his sudden change of personality was caused by a drug administered by his doctor for an ailment he was suffering from at that time.” Meanwhile, Ocampo, as articulated by de Jesus, believed that “Legaspi’s outburst was good for his friend,” and this outlook is “indicative of [Ocampo’s] maturity.” Ocampo also came to his own defense, with de Jesus writing, “Ocampo, however, claims that he continues to study and experiment, but the improvements and changes that he introduces in his work may not be noticed by the casual onlooker.” (This may ring true, especially considering that Ocampo just turned to acrylic painting for the first time in his career in 1974.) However, Ocampo did not let Legaspi’s criticism slide like that. Ocampo’s ensuing works from that unexpected luncheon subverted his vivid, tropical colors and, instead, significantly reduced his palette to only red, black, and white. The first seven works of this style would be exhibited at the Manila Peninsula Gallery in Makati in celebration of Ocampo’s 67th birthday (This exhibit was also only Ocampo’s third solo show). Of this new phase in Ocampo’s career, Benesa wrote, “…The seven paintings are a serious attempt to break the spell by doing something different. The forms and shapes aren’t different, but it is the first time Ocampo has tried to paint paintings in black and white, the two color polarities, with the color red used to accentuate the design dramatically.” The most prominent of these works was When Aries Met a Bull, an evocation of Legaspi’s berating rants and so-titled since Legaspi’s zodiac sign was Aries, which precedes Taurus, the bull. Another significant piece from the Manila Pen exhibition was Good Friday in Caloocan, which was auctioned at Leon Gallery in June last year. There are other works by Ocampo exploring the red-blackwhite triad that were not exhibited at the landmark Manila Pen show. Make Haste Slowly was one. Make Haste Slowly is the English translation of a popular Latin phrase “Festina lente,” denoting to move swiftly yet still acting with prudence and care. In this work, Ocampo’s forms seemingly gracefully move into the center of the composition, and they strive to connect and converse with each other. The reds are put in such a way that it dramatically enlivens the composition. True to its title, the forms and the overall composition are marked by their looseness, with each form dynamically merging in Ocampo’s signature bold fluidity and lively charm, falling into place like puzzle pieces. The painting is a living, breathing unit akin to a human acting instinctively yet moving with willpower. Even without oil's inherent luminosity, the organic forms make the composition "glow" due to Ocampo's threefold principle of "unity, coherence, and emphasis." Make Haste Slowly can also allude to that intriguing First Friday Group luncheon, when his dear friend, the intoxicated Legaspi, emerged from his reticent cocoon and finally had the guts to spill out his outburst of criticism towards his long-time amigo. For H.R. Ocampo, to address criticism is to answer it swiftly but surely—and in his own special case, a suite of new paintings reduced to only three colors that were done in a short span of time yet still emphasizing his identity as a foremost master of his own game, the country’s dazzling colorist who once breathed a new sense of reality into his rather abstract forms.
PROPERTY FROM THE DON VICENTE “TIKING” H. LOPEZ, JR. COLLECTION Dreams signed and dated 1961 (lower left) and titled (verso) oil on canvas 28” x 22” (71 cm x 56 cm) PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist Leon Gallery, The Kingly Treasures Auction 2023, Makati City, 2 December 2023, Lot 71 Original, daring, and above all, steadfast in his commitment to his art, Hernando Ruiz Ocampo at 50 was the most important artist of his generation; and his paintings destined to be as immediate and relevant as when they were first painted decades before. But it was not necessarily pre-ordained by his background. Ramon Villegas would write in his staccato style, “He was born in 1911, in the populous district of Sta. Cruz, Manila. Due to financial problems, the family moved from Gagalangin, Tondo — a petit bourgeois district — to Maypajo, around 1917. Maypajo was already on the city outskirts, located just after the boundary of Manila, in the adjoining municipality of Caloocan, where the Katipunan had deep roots in the lower classes. “Ocampo’s Maypajo, near the crossroads of Monumento and Sangandaan, was famed for one of Manila’s cabarets. There, as his biographer Angel de Jesus says, Ocampo “learned the rough spots of life”. “Ocampo, as a boy, started out shining shoes for the cabaret customers. By the age of 17, he had become the cashier there. The artist would talk of his experiences there, his dalliances with the dancers. H.R. later painted one of those wasted women beside a wilted flower, still at work in the early morning hours. “The family could only afford a high school education for the young Hernando at the Young Man’s Catholic Association (YMCA), Manila. Yet his father Emilio, a local leader of the Nacionalista Party, wanted his son to study law in preparation for a political career. In 1928. following his father’s wishes, Hernando enrolled in the pre-law course in San Juan de Letran, on an athletic scholarship. After a year he left Letran for the Far Eastern University, again staying only a year.” And then his life would take a different turn: After dropping out of law school, H.R. Ocampo would find his way into the company of an avant-garde group of writers — the Veronicans — and from there it was a short skip and jump to the fast and furious world of poets, journalists and most, importantly, artists. In 1951, at age 40, H.R. would found the most influential artists group that the Philippines would ever see, the Neo- Realists. He would also find himself at ground zero of the Philippine Art Gallery, the first-ever to champion the cause of abstract art. In just ten short years, he and his band of brothers would dominate the Filipino art scene. H.R. himself would receive award after award. But in 1961, H.R. himself was what his biographer de Jesus would call his “Transitional Stage”. While he had gone from one triumph after another, in his deliberate fashion, he was pondering his next move. At this crossroads, his works would move from the flat perspectives of his postwar works towards his “Mutants Period” of the mid-Sixties which were a commentary on the nuclear war and aliens that the world obssesed about. At the tail end of the 1950s, Ocampo joined Philprom (Philippine Promotions Bureau) then the Philippines’ largest advertising agency, where he became a top administrative officer. And with it, Villegas says, pop culture would become more and more visible in his art. The sharp contrasts between light and shadow for example, Villegas would note, was the influence of the photography of Richard Avedon (1923-2004), the mixed-media works of Andy Warhol (1928-2007), as well as the pop and 60s psychedelic art. Speaking in an interview in 1961, Ocampo “resolved to devote more time to painting again.” Turning 50 that year, the Art Association of the Philippines honored him with a retrospective. It is precisely in this year that we find the work he called “Dreams”, its title penciled in in his own hand at the back of the painting. A purposeful intellectual, H.R. Ocampo had an interest in Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud and art critics had commented on the subconscious aspects of his work and their hidden messages. His use of color and shape, in particular tapped into this world. With ‘Dreams’, Ocampo distills the essence of human hopes and ambitions, portraying them as dynamic energy bursting to be set free from all limits.
PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED LADY Miners signed and dated 1952 (lower left) oil on canvas 18" x 14" (46 cm x 36 cm) PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist LITERATURE De Jesus, Angel G. H.R. Ocampo: The Artist as Filipino. Manila: Heritage Publishing, 1979. Full-color illustration on page 117 and painting description on page 119. Paras-Perez, Rod. Edades and the 13 Moderns. Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same title at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines with the assistance of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 1995. Black-and-white illustration and painting description on page 70. EXHIBITED Cultural Center of the Philippines, Edades and the 13 Moderns, Manila, 1995 H.R. Ocampo’s Evocative Miners A Seminal Painting of Philippine Modernism by ADRIAN MARANAN Hernando R. Ocampo in the 1950s was the boldest of his generation. Ocampo, christened as "The High Priest of Modern Painting," spearheaded the cause for modernism's (and Neo-Realism’s) triumph against conservatism through his efforts to educate the public on modern art. As Editor of the highly popular This Week Magazine, Ocampo wrote articles on art appreciation. He also did paintings that served as the magazine’s covers, encapsulating the periodical’s headline news, usually tackling pertinent socio-economic issues affecting the post-war nation. In one of his articles titled "How I look at pictures," Ocampo defended modern art, writing: "The absurdity in art of the oft-quoted adage "everyone to his own taste" can be clearly shown by the fact that the failure of a child of six or an expert shoemaker to appreciate a Michelangelo, a Rembrandt, an El Greco, a Matisse, an Amorsolo, or an Edades cannot in any way detract from or add to the aesthetic qualities inherent in any of the aforementioned paintings...let not either of them say that any painting is good, bad, or indifferent just because the subject involved is a Madonna, a vase of flowers, or an abstraction...." It was in this experimental, dauntless milieu that Ocampo matured as a painter A Woman’s Unwavering Support for Modernism Painted in 1952, the work at hand titled Miners can still be grouped under Ocampo's "Proletarian Period” of 1934 to 1945, although it falls technically under his "Transitional Period" of 1945 to 1963, in which he would gradually delve into non-objective painting but intermittently return to the human figure. During this time, Ocampo was a producer- director for the Filipino Players Guild, a producer of radio programs. In Miners, Ocampo depicts two men inside a cramped, sweltering quarry, with only their headlamps, vulnerable endurance, and unabating pursuit to earn a living as their wellspring of strength. The work was acquired by the current owner's mother, whom the print media mogul Chino Roces employed in his own The Manila Times as a most trusted staff. Much like H.R. the nationalist who highlighted the Filipino struggle in his early paintings, the mother was noted to have supported the Filipino modernists when they were still struggling for acceptance amid a sea of searing conservatives. She and her friends Estrella Alfon, Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, and Lyd Arguilla (Philippine Art Gallery founder) championed Filipino modernism through their patronage and their articles published in the most popular newspaper, The Manila Times. The ladies hung out at the popular Jade Vine restaurant along Isaac Peral St. (now United Nations Avenue) in Ermita, Manila, where they had rousing exchanges of talks, debates, and gossip surrounding the state of Filipino art and society at that time. In fact, it was The Manila Times, in its 9 June 1950 issue, that first announced to its millions of readers the first-ever public exhibition of the Neo-Realists at the Manila Hotel's Rotary Room. Miners was originally in Ocampo's personal collection, with no records showing it was ever exhibited. The current owner's mother acquired it directly from Ocampo himself, with him recounting, "My mother bought it because she wanted to help H.R.—her friend—and the other new artists. Everybody started from scratch after the war, and there was no money to be made from art. But they eagerly wanted to promote Philippine modern art, which really made them excited." The owner reminisced that his mother became friends with Ocampo through Lyd Arguilla, who was also her close friend alongside Lyd’s husband, the writer Manuel (famous for the short story How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife imbued with nationalistic themes), who guided the Veronicans and died as a guerilla. "My mother gravitated towards Lyd, who really wanted to establish a gallery for the struggling Filipino modernists," the owner said. "Lyd was a widow and had no direct source of income for the promotion of their art. This was how all the early works of the modernists came into my mother's collection, through her eager purchase and unwavering support." The Manila Times ladies furnished their homes with these modernist paintings, bringing with them a sense of pride and joy in a newfound visual language, a strong showcase of the Filipino modernist’s unabating uphill battle. The owner added, "My mother did not consider herself a collector. She just wanted to help her painter friends." Miners at the 1995 CCP Retrospective of Philippine Modernism Miners would be exhibited in 1995 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in the retrospective Edades and the 13 Moderns, tracing the history of Philippine modernism from Edades in 1928 up to the rise of Neo-Realism in the 1950s. The eminent art critic/painter Rod. Paras-Perez, the show’s curator, particularly chose this for the exhibition and was noted by the owner as “Mang Rod’s favorite, the critic’s choice” among the three dozen works in the show. “Miners was championed by Manong Rod as a seminal work in the development of Philippine modernism,” the owner recalled. “Manong Rod was in love with the painting. He requested my Mama to bring it back to Manila for the exhibit. Mama had sent it to my sister to display in the latter’s London home.” Miners, in Ocampo’s words As recalled by the owner, Ocampo said the following to describe this painting. "This work is my attempt at presenting the plight of two miners at work. Although figurative, I had already been figuring out how to abstract their features, and how to pull out color harmonies from the palette that would sync with Philippine realities." An avid reader himself, Miners may have been inspired by the Paracale mine disaster of December 15, 1952, when water rapidly rushed into a 400-foot-deep tunnel in a goldmine owned by the United Paracale Mining Co. in Camarines Norte. The mine became severely flooded, trapping and drowning 55 miners, making the incident the worst mining disaster in Philippine history during that time. Ocampo probes into poor labor conditions with this work. He was, in fact, a nationalist. While in jail due to false collaboration charges after the war (but soon revealed to be born out of jealousy, as his friend who filed the case allegedly saw Ocampo kiss his girlfriend, which, to Ocampo's defense, was his way of greeting women friends), Ocampo bonded with other nationalists who were also unfortunately accused of being collaborators, including Claro M. Recto, Jose P. Laurel, and even Victorio Edades, his painting companion at that time. His biographer de Jesus also recounted a newspaper debate in which Ocampo “maintained that in the future, the Philippines should try to depend on herself alone and not on other countries whose motives were not always altruistic.” In Miners, the artist's rendering of organic, sinuous forms emphasizes the humanity of the miners, with their faceless features highlighting their dehumanization under an exploitative environment. Miners also show an attempt to synthesize the colors of the Philippine flag and transform them into somber tones to evoke the desolate conditions the Filipino people had to endure in the post-war years: living amidst an environment of national trauma, of immediate survival and sustenance amid sluggish rehabilitation and reconstruction and the hegemony of neo-colonial, pro-American policies. Miners is a synthesis of Western surrealism and the Neo- Realist propensity of projecting an early form of Filipino social realism. Ocampo turns to the writings of Sigmund Freud on the interpretation of dreams. He colors his figurative works with a dream-like bizarreness of projecting repressed emotions and thoughts as metaphors for a new reality filled with the tension between chaos and order, death and survival, hope and despair. Ocampo heavily leans on the lived experiences of the times, painting a highly symbolic image through his subjective preferences of tropical colors and highly stylized forms to emphasize an objective reality—the Neo-Realist essence. A Reflection of Ocampo as a Proletarian For Ocampo to have empathized with the struggles of the common Filipino is deeply rooted in his past. If there was someone who could become the poster boy of the Filipino as a struggling artist, it was Ocampo himself. Raised in Maypajo, Caloocan, Ocampo had already faced the harsh realities of life in his youth. Eager to help his financially incapacitated family, Ocampo became a shoe-shine boy for the nearby cabarets' local and foreign customers. At 17, he became a cashier at the Maypajo cabaret. (Ocampo playfully recounted that aside from tending the cash register, he also dated some of the bailarinas (hostesses) whose daily attendance he checked.) During the 1930s, Ocampo was a member of the Veronicans, a group of twelve young writers that also included literary heavyweights Francisco Arcellana, N.V.M. Gonzalez, and Estrella Alfon. They were described by Leonidas Benesa in his book Hernando R. Ocampo: The Neo-Realist as Avant-Garde as "involved in proletarian literature, or social realism, in the belief that this was the 'true image,' which should show on the veil of literature." Ocampo's association with the Veronicans would spill out to his early years as a painter. When Ocampo painted Miners, he had transferred from the print media to the radio world, as there was a boom in radio drama and the compensation was three times bigger, as he said in a 1972 interview with Cid Reyes. In radio, he was also a writer, director, producer, and an occasional actor. This he did as the eldest child, all for the hustle of providing a living for his parents, his two families from two different wives, and his nephews and nieces whose parents (his siblings) were unemployed. (Because there would be no breadwinner for the family, Ocampo shockingly declined three international study grants, foremost of which was the Parisian scholarship of 1950 that was given to Manansala instead.) Putting all these struggles together, one can picture Ocampo's "Proletarian Period," where humanity's optimism and melancholy resonate with beautiful tension. He never left the Philippines to study and broaden his creative horizons abroad, but the collective hopes and struggles of the common Filipino proved powerful enough for his virtuosity to flourish.
a.) Abstraction signed and dated 1970 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 11” x 8 1/2” (28 cm x 22 cm) b.) Abstraction signed and dated 1970 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 11” x 8 1/2” (28 cm x 22 cm) c.) Abstraction signed and dated 1970 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 11” x 8 1/2” (28 cm x 22 cm) d.) Abstraction signed and dated 1970 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 11” x 8 1/2” (28 cm x 22 cm) e.) Abstraction signed and dated 1970 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 11” x 8 1/2” (28 cm x 22 cm) f.) Abstraction signed and dated 1970 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 11” x 8 1/2” (28 cm x 22 cm) g.) Abstraction signed and dated 1970 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 11” x 8 1/2” (28 cm x 22 cm)
This striking abstract acrylic on paper was painted by Hernando Ruiz Ocampo, a listed Filipino artist. It is titled "Abstract". 21" x 27" unframed, just matted. Signed lower right.
Fifty-Three “J” signed, dated 1953-J and inscribed Manila (lower right) oil on board 25 1/4” x 19” (64 cm x 48 cm Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Literature 7 Years of the Philippine Art Gallery. Manila: Philippine Art Gallery, 1958. Listed as “No. 647. Fifty-Three “J”” on page AP - 12 (Appendix - 12) of the General Catalogue of the works exhibited at the PAG from 1951 to 1957. Kalaw-Ledesma, Purita. The Biggest Little Room: A History of The Philippine Art Gallery. Manila: Kalaw-Ledesma Art Foundation, 1987. Listed as “Fifty-Three “J”” on page 155 as part of Hernando R. Ocampo’s works exhibited at the PAG. Exhibited Philippine Art Gallery, Second Anniversary Exhibition, Manila, 4 - 18 July 1953 Fifty-Three “J” was one of Hernando R. Ocampo’s two entries to the second anniversary exhibition of the Philippine Art Gallery held from July 4 to 18, 1953. Fellow Neo-Realist and non-objectivist Victor Oteyza wrote a review published in Weekly Women’s Magazine for Ocampo’s other entry, which also rings true for Fifty-Three “J.” Oteyza praises Ocampo’s work, saying it “evokes truths that cannot be expressed in mathematics, sound, motion, or words. What the painting says can only be said in the plastic vocabulary of paint, which is how all good paintings should be expressed.” Fifty-Three “J” would find its way into the venerable collection of Alfredo Roces, whose name was particularly included in the “List of H.R. Ocampo Collectors,” found in the appendix pages of Ocampo’s De Jesus-authored monograph and culled from the artist’s personal register. Fifty-Three “J” was unsold when it was first exhibited at the PAG, based on the “General Catalogue” (published in the book 7 Years of the Philippine Art Gallery, 1951 – 1957) of the list of works exhibited at the modernist space. It remained in Ocampo’s storage until he gifted it to Roces as a token of their friendship. “We gave them away to friends,” said Ocampo in a 1972 interview with Cid Reyes when asked what he did with unsold paintings. “You had to, otherwise you’d run out of storage space. But what does Fifty-Three “J” stand for in Ocampo’s career? After the rise of Neo-Realism signaled the final echoes of the downfall of the conservative school’s supremacy, non-objectivism became the natural progression it would take, even heralding its arrival as the “climax” of the entire modernist movement by the writer-critic Aurelio Alvero, aka Magtanggul Asa. In the aftermath of the smoke and amid the ruins of the war, non-objectivism was a visual idiom inseparable from Neo-Realism’s entity and essence. The protagonization of plastic forms and the inherent flexibility of these elements in accordance with the painter’s vision align with the Neo-Realist manifesto of completely destroying reality and letting the fragments “draw together again,” thus eliminating the need for a subject’s recognizable representation in favor of its soul and essence. What bound the neo-realists and the non-objectivists was the emphasis on the soul—particularly the Filipino collective humanity and urbanity—as the war’s most tragic casualty and rediscovering and reclaiming its fragments to once again arrive at a totality of our shared being. Indeed, what cannot be instantly recognized by the eyes, as with the practice of non-objectivism, is forthrightly felt by the soul through the dynamic yet ever-mystifying harmony of the plastic forms. It is an appreciation for the aesthetics of the fundamentals necessary for healing and catharsis. Hernando R. Ocampo would rise as Philippine non-objective art’s foremost exponent. He was christened by Asa as the “Father of Non-Objective Art,” with him writing: “Ocampo’s energy and prolificness have proved most vital to the cause of non-objective art in this country.” Ocampo led the cultural milestone that was the “First Exhibition of Non-Objective Art in Tagala” in December 1953. The exhibition demonstrated Filipino modernism at its most avant-garde, eschewing the need for objective and cognizable representation and elevating the merit of the plastic elements of painting, which are essentially the nucleus of the modernist’s continuing strive to liberate Philippine art from the shackles of classicism. Non-objectivism and the emphasis on plastic elements found favor in Ocampo beginning in the mid-1940s. Asa noted, “As early as 1947, [HR had] started working with free plastic forms. The first public exhibition of his non-objective work did not occur, however, until 1949 when his “Angel’s Kiss” (now at the National Museum) won a major prize at the Manila Club Art Exhibition and Competition.” Ocampo’s dive into the non-objective was a result of his being influenced by the paintings and writings of the Western non-objectivists—Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Paul Klee—and his fascination with the organic forms of the country’s flora and fauna, which he deemed as having “the strongest influence on my paintings.” Furthermore, the traumatic experience of his eight-month incarceration at the New Bilibid Prison by the American Counter-Intelligence Corps due to suspicions of being a Japanese collaborator was weaved into his maximalist, tension-filled compositions. Ocampo’s exploration of non-objectivism was also natural for him as a literary blue-blood, being more interested in articulating the essence of things rather than their physicality. The work at hand, titled Fifty-Three “J,” belongs to what Ocampo’s biographer, Angel G. de Jesus, wrote in the artist’s monograph as his “Transition Period” of 1945 to 1963. It followed his earlier “Proletarian Period,” in which he depicted faceless figures as symbolic of the Filipino masses’ struggle in the face of centuries-long colonialism. De Jesus described the “Transition Period” as follows: “Non-objective painting became his main interest. His figures and natural objects became his main interest. His figures and natural objects became simplified. He eliminated details of the human anatomy, disregarded perspective, and his forms became increasingly distorted. His objective was to flatten planes and achieve unity of composition and design through a combination of hues, tonal values, and textures. The painting became a living, organic, logical unit.” The result are works brimming with horror vacui. Tension is injected, creating an exciting interplay between the plastic elements. Ocampo’s preference for warm, tropical colors is showcased, providing sheer pleasure for the senses. He breathes life into his compositions by emphasizing both the individuality of the plastic elements—luxurious colors, expressive lines, and organic forms that exude richness in tactility—and their vibrant coherence that resoundingly speaks and manifests itself into the depths of our subconscious, a dream-like world simply throbbing with pure fascination. (Adrian Maranan)
Untitled signed (upper left) collage 24” x 31 3/4” (61 cm x 81 cm) Exhibited Solidaridad Galleries, Interaction ‘71, Manila, 4 - 18 May 1971 This Interaction work between eminent artists Alfredo Roces, Hernando R. Ocampo, and Florinda Trinidad Ferrer is a step toward another masterful piece. Exploring the idea of having more than one artist work on a piece, Roces, Ocampo, and Trinidad Ferrer embarked on an experimental method that illustrates their differing strong suits. The result is an explosion of colors and prints, a work worthy of its illustrious artists. (Hannah Valiente)
Untitled signed and dated 1973 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 11 1/2” x 8” (29 cm x 20 cm) Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Hernando R. Ocampo’s pen-and-ink works echo his iconic abstractions. A melting pot of techniques and inspirations, Ocampo’s colored abstractions are a vision of exploding hues, all bright, vivid, and almost impossible in intensity. In contrast, this 1973 sketch is devoid of colors; still, it did not lack fervor. Ocampo focuses on the center of the canvas, breaking up the plane of his subject in varying shades of opacity. Even without his signature colors, Ocampo’s study of how hues clash and blend is still evident, now through various shades of shadows and light. (Hannah Valiente)
Untitled signed and dated 1970 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 13 1/4” x 10 1/4” (33 cm x 26 cm) Provenance Acquired directly from the artist In July of 1968, the Saturday Group began its humble beginnings. A handful of eminent artists met at the Taza de Oro in Ermita along Roxas Boulevard where they enjoyed each other’s company. Among their most illustrious is Hernando R. Ocampo. Already a prominent artist by the time of the group’s creation, Alfredo Roces considered Ocampo, whom he called Nanding, a key player in their weekly meetings – though there is no official president in the group, Ocampo almost always takes its de facto position, mostly due to his experience and accolades. The Saturday Group served as the perfect place for ideas to culminate and grow, with Ocampo a central figure of it all. (Hannah Valiente)
Portrait of the Neo-Realist Victor Oteyza signed and dated 1948 (lower right) oil on wood 28” x 17” (71 cm x 43 cm) Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Literature: Hufana, Alejandrino G., ed. Pamana 13 June 1974: A Cultural Quarterly Published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1974. Listed on page 15 as “62. PORTRAIT OF VIC OTEYZA” under the artist’s list of paintings. Tiongson, Nicanor G., ed. Artista ng Bayan 1991. Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila. 1991. Listed on page 32 as “62. Portrait of Vic Oteyza” under HR Ocampo’s “List of Paintings (Partial)”. Hernando R. Ocampo and Victor Oteyza both saw the crashing of the relentless tides of modernism. But how did these two meet and forge a friendship? The answer lies in other seminal figures in Filipino modernism, who were all inextricably bonded to their zealous endeavor of liberating Philippine painting. Before the war, Ocampo worked as the assistant editor of the mid-week magazine of the Philippines Herald. He counted among his colleagues now venerable names in Philippine history: Carlos P. Romulo (editor), Salvador P. Lopez (columnist), and Vicente Manansala, who had jumped to the art department of the Philippines Herald after working as a painter of billboards for the Philippine Advertising Company. On Saturdays, when people were off work, Cesar Legaspi would join Ocampo and Manansala. Legaspi then worked for Elizalde and Company as one of its advertising artists. “It was during these sessions that the young Manansala and Legaspi would hear, for the first time, about the wonders of Modern art,” wrote Purita Kalaw-Ledesma in the book The Biggest Little Room. H.R. Ocampo, being the literary and the intellectual one, talked of modernist theories and concepts in these conversations (He was a founding member of the Veronicans, progressive writers in the 1930s that also counted Francisco Arcellana, Angel G. de Jesus, and N.V.M Gonzales in its roster. The group wrote short stories and other literary pieces that were described by de Jesus, who would become Ocampo’s biographer, as representing “a break with tradition, an absence of bourgeois-moralistic taboos, and a realistic approach to life.”). Legaspi first met Oteyza around 1937, when Galo Ocampo requested the former to design the set and costumes for “Pygmalion and Galatea,” which Oteyza directed. “Cesar met Oteyza, and from this acquaintance, a deep friendship developed,” noted Kalaw-Ledesma. “Although Cesar lived at 821 Gelinos Street in Sampaloc, he would join Oteyza, who lived near the U.P. campus at Padre Faura Street. At night, they would meet and walk around discussing art and life. These discussions stimulated Oteyza and encouraged him to become a painter.” Through a common friend that was Legaspi, H.R. Ocampo and Victor Oteyza became acquainted. Kalaw-Ledesma recounted the pre-war Sunday luncheons when Galo Ocampo, H.R. Ocampo, Manansala, Demetrio Diego, and other artists (which reasonably included Oteyza) frequented Legaspi’s house and indulged in the savory Spanish cuisine meals that his father prepared and cooked. “Inevitably, the discussions would center on art,” said Kalaw-Ledesma. Another anecdote to H.R. Ocampo and Oteyza’s bond can be found in Angel G. de Jesus’ book on the former, writing that “as early as 1939, Nanding [and] Enteng held a joint exhibition at the UP Library where they were able to sell only two paintings,” one for each artist. De Jesus continued, “Their group was later joined by Legaspi and then by Ramon A. Estella, Victor Oteyza, Romeo V, Tabuena, and Arturo R. Luz. They visited each other’s studios, talked about each other’s paintings, and learned about their mistakes and faults. In that way, they improved their art and technique on the basis of what they learned from each other.” When liberation came for the war-torn Philippines, these artists reunited for their beloved Sunday get-togethers, now hopping from one artist’s house to another every weekend “to show what each had painted during the week and to comment on each other’s works” as Kalaw-Ledesma put it. “…As always, they could only paint after office hours or on holidays. This limited their production to three or, at most, twelve paintings a year.” The bond formed by H.R. Ocampo and Oteyza is encapsulated in this Portrait of Victor Oteyza. Painted by Ocampo in 1948, the work echoes sentiments of his “Proletarian Period” of 1934 to 1945, in which he depicted faceless figures as symbolic of the Filipino struggle against colonialism and, in turn, the destructive war. However, Ocampo’s portrait of his dear friend depicts the Filipino artists’ struggle towards artistic liberation, shattering tradition, embracing innovation, and finding a unique identity. This zeal would be materialized with the rise of Neo-Realism in the early ‘50s. This group counted among its members Ocampo and Oteyza and banded in the name of artistic revolution: a subversion against the deeply rooted supremacy and conservatism of the Amorsolo school of painting. They wanted to depict the destruction brought by the war and the trauma it had inflicted on the Filipino soul as it unfolded before their very eyes. In line with the Neo-Realist spirit, as articulated by the words of Francesco de Sanctis (to create reality, an artist must first destroy it, and its fragments would come together again to breathe new life among each other), Oteyza painted his Plastic Engineering Series (Oteyza himself was a professional engineer). The works are composed of stark linear forms arranged in a frenzied manner, emphasizing the plastic elements of painting. At the same time, it mirrors the turbulent, almost anarchic condition of Manila in the immediate aftermath of the war, as encapsulated by the ruined landscape and the cramped barong-barongs scattered all over the city. Kalaw-Ledesma wrote, “Oteyza was the closest [to adhere] to the De Santis philosophy.” The post-war Modernists also found themselves in great luck as the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) would be founded in 1948, the same year Ocampo painted the work at hand. The AAP would be headed by Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, matriarch and vanguard of modernism. It would hold annual exhibitions and competitions, and modernists and conservatives were all invited to join. But the tides would always turn in favor of the moderns, who, even in the first AAP competition in 1948, had swept all the major awards, from the 1st Prize won by Botong Francisco for Kaingin up to the 6th Prize won by H.R. Ocampo for Nude with Candle and Flower. Ocampo and Oteyza were peers (and rivals) in these lively competitions. In particular, Oteyza would bag several honors: the 5th Prize for his work Perfect State at the 1949 Annual and an “Honorable Mention” for The Crucible at the 1950 Annual. But it was his entry to the inaugural AAP annual, the first painting of his iconic “Plastic Engineering Series,” that would be dubbed years later by Magtanggul Asa in the booklet for the landmark “First Exhibition of Non-Objective Art in Tagala” in December 1953, as bagging “the distinction of the first non-objective piece entered in the competition,” a heralding of what’s to come in the fate of Philippine Modernism. Asa also honored Ocampo and Oteyza as the “major exponents” of non-objective art. (Adrian Maranan)
Hernando R. Ocampo (1911 - 1978) A Song for Summer signed and dated 1972 (lower right) oil on canvas 32" x 24" (81 cm x 61 cm) Accompanied by: • Color guide and paint swatches entitled “A Song for Summer — March 9, 1972”. Signed and dated by H. R. Ocampo, March 22, 1972 • Working drawing/study for “A Song for Summer” Provenance: Commissioned and acquired directly from the Artist by Arthur and Julie Hills in March 1972 A Promise To Keep For the Benefit of the Underprivileged Successful UPCAT Applicants by Butch Dalisay Now and then we come across stories of foreigners who fall under the spell of the Philippines so completely that wherever else they go, the Philippines and its panoply of wonders—its mangoes, its waters, its sunsets, and above all its smiling people—stay with them, urging them to return, in spirit if not in person. One such visitor was my good friend Julie Hill, who with her late husband Arthur first came to Manila in 1968 on a mission to help improve Philippine education, among other concerns. Almost six decades later, after having traveled the world and settled in America, Julie’s thoughts and affections remain bonded to this country and to its future. In the twilight of her life, she has decided to gift poor but bright young Filipinos with a life-changing opportunity to study at the University of the Philippines, from the forthcoming sale at auction of two paintings by National Artists HR Ocampo and Ang Kiukok. Born in Alexandria, Egypt to Greek parents, Julie Hill went on to a fulfilling life in the United States and around the world with Arthur, who represented the Ford Foundation in the Philippines. Forced to leave Egypt when Nasser took over, Julie found a scholarship for her master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Minnesota. There she met Arthur, an Australian taking his PhD in Education and Mathematical Statistics. The two fell in love, married, and embarked on a lifelong adventure around the world—to American Samoa, Thailand, Indonesia, and Afghanistan, where Arthur’s expertise in education and agricultural development was much sought after. Arthur passed away in 2002, but Julie went on to her own career as an international marketing executive for Lucent and later AT&T. Since retiring at their home in Rancho Sta. Fe, California, she has written and published five books of travel and memoirs—all of which I edited after being introduced to her by our mutual friend Jimmy Laya, turning our business connection into a long and dear friendship. From the first of those books, A Promise to Keep (2003), come many vivid impressions of a country and society transitioning to modernity, troubled but brimming with energy and promise. Arthur got busy working with UP and the International Rice Research Institute, among others, and the Hills became good friends with the rising technocrats of the time—Cesar Virata, Gerry Sicat, and Jimmy Laya. It was Laya—who remains close to Julie—who introduced her to the local art community. “The art scene was vibrant,” Julie would write. “Manila, a centuries-old entrepot, was rich in art and culture, and we were privileged to visit many private art collections…. “Art galleries flourished. A self-exiled painter stormed into town and set new price ceilings. The audience increased. So did the column inches devoted to art in the newspapers and magazines…. “The Luz Gallery in Makati was run by Arturo Luz, a leading painter, known for his high standards of professionalism. His gallery gained the trust of the public and the artists. The Solidaridad gallery and bookshop was located in Ermita, run by novelist Frankie Sionil Jose. Solidaridad was the middle ground between the established artists exhibiting at Luz and smaller galleries where new talent was championed. You could find superb examples of prints, drawings, miniatures, relief metal sculptures, collage, photographs, and paintings all over Manila. “We were interested in meeting the artists and visiting their studios, but were reluctant to pay the gallery prices. If we liked the work of a particular artist, why not buy directly from him or her? This was how we searched for and found the home of Hernando Ocampo.” “Hernando Ocampo was a pure abstract expressionist with a daring originality in his paintings. His work was unmistakably Filipino, ascribing this national character to his unique, tropical colors. A typical Ocampo painting is not unlike a honeycomb, a complex weave of color and tone with each individual cell suggesting a large, more real life form. His work is tropical and warm and suggestive of symmetry. The colors and shapes seem to dance before the eyes. His home in Maypajo was a mecca for friends, admirers, and collectors. He had an open house on Sundays. Good food and hard and soft drinks were ready for guests. Visiting Ocampo, we felt welcomed not only by the artist but also by his family. We commissioned a painting. Sketches were drawn; we followed the progress of our painting with our weekly Sunday visits, and sampled the wonderful pancit, that ubiquitous Filipino noodle dish, that was offered. We photographed the progress of his work. He completed the ‘Song of Summer’, a mastery of color in 17 different shades of red. It would hang proudly in our home in California, and continue to provide intense, pleasurable excitement, another reminder of our times in the Philippines.” (Note: Ocampo’s sketch and color guide for the painting will go with the artwork at auction.) The Hills left Manila for Indonesia shortly after martial law, but on a return visit in the early 1980s, their old friends at the Ford Foundation presented them with another painting by another Filipino master, Ang Kiukok. Julie recalls seeing several works by accomplished Filipino painters in the foundation office, purchased back when they were far more affordable, and this may have been one of them. Like the Ocampo, it traveled with the Hills around the world all the way to Rancho Sta. Fe, where I have been visiting Julie over the years (our daughter Demi conveniently lives nearby in San Diego). It was during our most recent visit there that Julie brought up the idea of donating her two paintings for the benefit of poor UP students. A lifelong but quiet supporter of students as far away as Mindanao and a staunch believer in the transformative power of education, Julie also honored me by anonymously (but no more) endowing the Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. Professorial Chair in Creative Writing at UP, over my embarrassed pleas to put it in her name. This time, she wants the money to go to UP’s poorest—specifically, those exceptionally bright and mainly provincial students who, against all odds, pass the UPCAT but fail to enroll, lacking the means to afford the cost of living on a UP campus. We’ll need to work out the mechanics, but this will go much farther than professorial chairs in changing Filipino lives. “I had a privileged education in Alexandria and was fortunate to receive a scholarship for my graduate education in America,” Julie says. “During our years in Manila, Arthur and I developed a deep affection for the people of the Philippines, and I am hoping that this donation will contribute to creating a generation of talented and hopeful Filipinos who will serve their country well.” The Ocampo and Ang Kiukok paintings will be sold at auction by León Gallery on February 22. I pray that generous buyers will help Julie keep her promise to the Filipino people.
Hernando R. Ocampo (1911 - 1978) Terminal signed and dated 1968 (lower right and verso) oil on canvas 30" x 30" (76 cm x 76 cm) Provenance: The Luz Gallery Literature: Hufana, Alejandrino G., ed. Pamana 13 June 1974: A Cultural Quarterly Published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1974. Listed on page 19 as “270. TERMINAL” under the artist's list of paintings. Tiongson, Nicanor G., ed. Artista ng Bayan 1991. Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila. 1991. Listed on page 37 as "270. Terminal" under HR Ocampo's "List of Paintings (Partial)". Exhibited: The Luz Gallery, Legaspi - Luz - Ocampo (Three-man Exhibit), Makati, 7 – 19 November 1968 H.R. Ocampo at His Finest One of the earliest pieces from his coveted Visual Melody Period Made in the same year as the iconic Genesis by Adrian Maranan By the late 1960s, H.R. Ocampo would reach the zenith of his artistic career—his highly acclaimed and coveted Visual Melody Period from 1968 to 1978. Thanks to his decision in 1968 to resign from his long-time post as art director and Senior Vice President of PHILPROM, Ocampo freed himself from the burden of bureaucratic responsibilities, giving and flexing the free rein of his hands into painting. Purita Kalaw Ledesma succinctly writes of this decisive episode in Ocampo’s life in her book The Biggest Little Room: A History of the Philippine Art Gallery: “This liberation from a very constricting job gave him a burst of creativity he had never experienced before. His works became quite outstanding, and the public responded by buying most of his works. He now is one of the most sought-after artists.” Now possessing the liberty of time, Ocampo found creative inspiration from music, particularly chamber music. Ocampo himself said in a 1972 interview with art critic and fellow artist Cid Reyes that his Visual Melody Period saw him “engaged in approximating the properties of music. “I am interested in creating what you would call ‘visual melodies,’” he said. “I approach my paintings now as if they were chamber music, which, I suppose, one can consider ‘pure music.’” Prior to this stage in his painting career, Ocampo had his Mutants Period of 1963 to 1968, in which he explored the destructive consequences of nuclear warfare amid the looming threats of worldwide nuclear annihilation during the decade as the Cold War between the superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union, progressed. In contrast, the Visual Melody Period witnessed Ocampo embrace bright, tropical colors that seemingly burst out of the canvas, transforming the composition into a palpable feast for the eyes. The Visual Melody Period was a natural progression for Ocampo, who had finally found all the time in the world to devote himself to what for him was life’s most consummate manifestation of being and his true love—painting. The period witnessed Ocampo attain the peak of his Neo-Realist style, finding a new reality grounded in the lyrical possibilities of pure music translated into a pure abstraction that stimulates the senses and electrifies the intellect. The explosive vigor of his new style confined within the limits of a canvas evokes the powerful intimacy of chamber music. Terminal was one of those first works Ocampo painted in his new, exciting period in his four-decade art career. Forms seamlessly blend with each other, colors colliding in harmonious progression. As Terminal exemplifies, Ocampo’s Visual Melody sees his colors noticeably transformed into vibrant, prismatic ones, as opposed to the somber ones of the Mutants Period. His forms also became more complex, yet they possess arresting lyricism and free-flowing character. In the work, one sees forms stacking on each other, concluding in a mountain-like crest seemingly reaching for the horizon. Deep greens are embedded with yellow greens towards the summit, creating an interesting juxtaposition. For Ocampo, it may have been a reminder that there is nowhere to go but up when it comes to pursuing the creative passions of the heart and mind. Terminal is a highly documented work by Ocampo, appearing in the publications Pamana, published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in its 13 June 1974 issue and Artista ng Bayan, published by the CCP in conjunction with Ocampo’s posthumous declaration as National Artist for the Visual Arts. Both publications contain official lists of Ocampo’s works in chronological order. Ocampo would showcase his new style in a highly publicized and hotly anticipated three-man exhibition at The Luz Gallery with his friends, Cesar Legaspi and Arturo Luz, in November 1968. It was advertised under the banner of “The pioneers stage a comeback” by the Philippines Free Press, with the magazine writing about Ocampo, “Ocampo and Legaspi, who established their reputations years before many of today’s painters were born, only recently escaped the drudgery of advertising agency work, and are now devoting all of their time and energies to the fevered activity of their youth.” The eminent art critic Alfredo Roces, writing in his Light and Shadow column for the Times, observed that Ocampo’s works in the show are “alive with glowing colors and newfound energy,” adding that he and Legaspi had recently retired from their advertising careers with the show representing their “happy celebration.” An article published in the 4 November 1968 issue of the Manila Bulletin described the works of Ocampo in the exhibition as “continu[ing] to exploit the potentialities of chromatic arrangements and fragmented shapes endless in its variations.” The article also hyped Ocampo’s works, writing that the “products of his imaginations seem endless.” Following the creation of Terminal and the other works Ocampo showcased in the Luz Gallery exhibition, he would then paint the monumental Genesis, which would be soon transformed into the iconic tapestry for the CCP Main Theater.
PROPERTY FROM THE JOSE ABAD LOPEZ COLLECTION a.) Nude signed and dated 1968 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 7 1/2" x 4 1/2" (19 cm x 11 cm) b.) Nude signed and dated 1968 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 7 1/2" x 4 1/2" (19 cm x 11 cm) c.) Nude signed and dated 1968 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 8" x 5" (20 cm x 13 cm) d.) Nude signed and dated 1968 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 8 3/4"x 5 1/4" (22 cm x 13 cm) e.) Untitled signed and dated 1968 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 8" x 5" (20 cm x 13 cm)
This striking abstract acrylic on paper was painted by Hernando Ruiz Ocampo, a listed Filipino artist. It is titled "Abstract". 21" x 27" unframed, just matted. Signed lower right.
Abstraction 84 signed, titled and dated 1976 (lower right) watercolor on paper 14” x 21” (36 cm x 53 cm) PROVENANCE: Carolina Guerrero collection Color is the primary element of Hernando R. Ocampo’s art. His canvases are filled with a vibrant spectacle of irregular geometric forms. However, despite his kaleidoscopic palette, his colors have a curious sense of Filipino-ness. A balanced mix of cool and warm hues, Abstraction 84 is a testament to Ocampo’s unrivaled artistry and sublime understanding of color. Although Ocampo’s works may appear simple, they are a result of a meticulous consideration of how each hue, tone, and saturation affect each other and influence the painting’s tension and motion. Notably, his works are devoid of any actual objects, yet they manage to capture people’s attention and recognition, leaving a lasting legacy as befits one of the forerunners of modern art in the Philippines. (Jessica Magno)
