Anita Magsaysay - Ho

Excellent overall condition as viewed. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals small and sporadic areas of restoration, most noticeable at the edges and corners of the canvas, near the eyes and eyebrows of the women, and at clothes and at background at center. Framed.
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Anita Magsaysay-Ho’s oeuvre is highly celebrated for its compassionate portrayals of Filipino women, the paintings dedicated to their daily routines, dramas, families, hopes, and aspirations. Amongst the 13 revered national artists, Magsaysay-Ho has the distinction of being the only woman within this grouping. Throughout her lifetime she was inspired by the feminine spirit, for as a woman artist Magsaysay-Ho found comradery in the sisterly bonds of the women that inhabited her paintings, their stories reflecting her own personal history.

The present painting Fruit Vendors is a classic piece from impressive repertoire, for the two women portrayed remain faithful to the artist’s cubist-inspired aesthetics and subject matter. Painted in 1961, the work is reflective of Magsaysay-Ho’s painterly style of that decade: “[the women] are angular with sharp profile and somewhat squat in proportion as they crowd in the rectangular format. The approach is strongly intellectual with energy replacing feeling, and boldness displacing the charming and the pretty”.¹ Fruit Vendors exemplifies a style which Anita developed after her “Philippine Art Gallery (PAG) period paintings. Here, the two women are well articulated with particular attention to the gesture of their hands. The painting displays a greater sensitivity to postures and tonal modulations. “The lines now tend to soften with a more consistent modelling, the light and dark tones creating a more harmonious and mellifluous effect that hints of choreographic grace.”

Her paintings are largely “action” narratives, for the lives of the women are shown taking place in fields, pulling nets from the sea, catching chickens, or as seen in the current piece, fruit vendors tending to their wares. Magsaysay-Ho’s depiction of womanhood was that of an individual who was capable, strong, passionate, and overall dedicated to the betterment of mankind. By forgoing with the beauty myth and featuring women honestly in their environments, Magsaysay-Ho’s collection of paintings has had a lasting impression upon the history of the Philippines, and established her as one of the pioneering artists of the country’s modern art movement.

¹Purita Kakaw-Ledesma and Alice Guerrero Guillermo, Anita Magsaysay-Ho: A Retrospective, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila, Philippines, 1988, pg. 18

²Refer to 1, pg. 19