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Women signed and dated 1970 (lower right) oil on wood 28" x 39" (71 cm x 99 cm) PROVENANCE Private collection, Manila WRITE UP: Cesar Legaspi is a major figure in the history of Philippine modernism. Following the tragedy of the Second World War, Legaspi was among the young artists that took up the mantle and shook the Philippine art scene with their unorthodox styles and a disregard for traditions. In his confrère, which included giants of modernism like H.R. Ocampo and Vicente Manansala among others, Legaspi stood out with his background in commercial art rather than fine arts. He was trained in pen and ink illustrations, a fact that made his deuteranopia or red-green color blindness more bearable in his line of work. He ran in the circles of illustrious artists and created a spattering of paintings but it wasn’t until he decided to seriously pursue art in 1968 – the year he resigned from his post as the art director for the advertising company Philprom. Created in 1970 – the decade that art critic Alice Guillermo noted as the maturity of his style – the lot at hand displays Legaspi’s prismatic effects in full display. His expected composition directs the viewers to the focal point of the canvas: the three women occupying the right side. His attention to detail is shown most obviously in regards to his anatomy. The women, naked as their name day, were metamorphosed into a chromatic, almost abstract field with their torso vague abstractions of a body instead of a faithful rendition. The human body is a distinct element in a Legaspi canvas, impressionable and visceral. They occupy a good portion of his oeuvre, and for good reason. “I think that even if I were to paint a completely abstract painting, I shall always be abstracting the human figure,” he once said. “I can never get away from the figure.” (Hannah Valiente)