Musicians
signed and dated 1994 (lower left)
oil on canvas
36" x 24" (91 cm x 61 cm)

Private Collection, Manila

This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Gisella
Olmedo - Araneta confirming the authenticity of this lot

Onib Olmedo’s intensely evocative treatment of psychological themes almost singlehandedly represents the more restrained side of Philippine expressionism, and musicians are a familiar subject in Olmedo’s brooding universe. Emmanuel Torres wrote that “If a sure way of forging a distinctive style is to take a feature of modern art and exploit it in extremis, and in the process even in the process even gain a reputation of being profound, if only the result is so gruesome as to intimidate the layman into imagining there must be more to it than meets the eye, then Onib Olmedo has done it.” The colors are mostly mysterious greens, deep, earthbound browns and cold blues. The eyes of the two violinists are vaguely unsettling.