Bwisit (Jai - Alai Series)
signed and dated 2000 (lower right)
oil on canvas
48” x 36” (122 cm x 91 cm)

PROVENANCE:León Gallery, The Asian Cultural Council Auction 2020,February 22, 2020, Lot 124



WRITE UPDanilo Dalena’s Jai-Alai series is perhaps the most iconic in his oeuvre; it has been exalted in the altar of his paintings as the “classic Dalena.” Scholar on Philippine art history Marilyn R. Canta, in her essay on Dalena’s Jai-Alai Series published in the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, describes the game as “a type of ball sport known for its speed. Moreover, the sport involves many types of betting, which require predictions on the score outcomes or comparative standing of players and/ or teams at the end of the games. Jai-alai is a very popular gambling sport, just like horse racing.” Dalena first delved into his now-highly coveted Jai-Alai series in 1974, the height of Martial Law, and exhibited them for the first time in 1978. Since then, Dalena has continued to visually expound on the series, exploring the myriad narratives and notions regarding the popular betting game that encapsulates the Filipino masses in their earnest declarations of faith, not in the Divine, but on the providential stroke of luck—placing brash confidence in mere coincidence. In her landmark 1987 monograph titled Social Realism in the Philippines, celebrated art critic Alice Guillermo describes Dalena’s art, along with Ang Kiukok’s, Onib Olmedo’s, and Bencab’s, as “representing a quest for symbols of the “human condition” and rather than particularly realist was expressionistic and bearing a strong individual and emotional stamp.” The Cultural Center of the Philippines Encyclopedia of Philippine Art writes: “…Guillermo remarked on how the betting hall in Dalena’s works may be seen as a metaphor of the human condition, particularly for Philippine society in a state of crisis.” In the work at hand, Dalena depicts an intriguing image of an ordinary Filipino family. Their bodies are distorted, rendered in the artist’s signature expressionistic curves and plumpness. These figures, although having faces rendered blank, exude disappointment and sheer chagrin, emphasized further by the dark, depressing, and seemingly cramped setting. As a poignant portrait of the ordinary Filipino family, Dalena’s Bwisit delves deeply into the masses’ protest against their distressing socio-economic conditions and resounding pleas for the betterment of such. The father—with his downtrodden gesture, perhaps due to betting all that his family has got yet succumbing to the elusiveness of luck, and the mother, who carries their baby in her tormented arms, signify the reality of many Filipino families. For many Filipino families, especially in the urban areas, gambling—although relying on one’s luck to challenge and change their fate—is their only bet in escaping the seemingly inescapable cycle of systemic poverty. Due to the state’s neglect and its prioritization of the self-serving interests of imperialists, bureaucrat-capitalists, and the big comprador-landlord class, the decreasing value of real wages and the continuous surge in prices of essential goods and services do not meet the needed family living wage to sustain a decent and dignified life. More than stories of social and moral vices, Dalena’s Jai-Alai Series delves more into the distressing human conditions borne from systemic exploitation and oppression. As a series first produced in one of the most turbulent and depressing periods in our history—one that continues to torment our nation today, the Jai-Alai Series galvanizes us to look deeper into our shared struggles with the oppressed masses and collectively march toward the path of radical change and genuine, inclusive progress. (Adrian Maranan)