East Meets West

Joya began sketching at the age of eleven. Like his other artistic peers, he was initially trained to paint in the style of realist maestro Fernando Amorsolo, but gradually became influenced American abstraction and by the emerging trends in Philippine modernism. Joya graduated from the University of the Philippines (UP) in 1953 with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art, earning the distinction of being the university's first Magna cum Laude. In 1954, through the influential assistance of Fernando Zbel, the Spanish government awarded him a one year grant to study painting in Madrid. Other similar grants were also given to Arturo Luz and Nena Saguil. After returning from Spain, Joya finished his Master's Degree in Painting in 1956 at the Cranbrook School of Art in Michigan, with the assistance of a Fulbright Smith-Mundt grant.
His mature abstract works have been said to be "characterized by calligraphic gestures and linear forces, and a sense of color vibrancy emanating from an Oriental sensibility." Joya's usage of color was derived from the verdant hues of the Philippine landscape, and his use of rice paper in collages demonstrates a keen interest in transparency; as superbly displayed within East Meets West (Lot 3453)