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Lot Essay
Victorio Edades is indisputably one of the most important names within Philippine art history. Known as the 'Father of Modern Philippine Art' and leader of the 'Thirteen Moderns' - a vanguard of artists who fought for aesthetic progress - the road to visual modernity in the Philippines would have looked vastly different without his artistic contributions. Due to Edades' guiding light, Philippine art transitioned from the idyllic realism of Fernando Amorsolo to true modernity by the mid-20th century, developing in tandem with Western art movements and influences. Everything began with Edades' groundbreaking 1928 exhibition at the Philippine Colombian Club, the same year that he returned home after nine years in America. In the words of Galo Ocampo, Edades' return to the Philippines in 1928 was: "the most significant movement in the history of Philippine art. It was a movement that led to a change of cultural values, from the old to the new concepts of modern art".
Edades was born in 1895, during one of the most turbulent and significant periods in Philippine history, as the country was mired in a revolution of independence against Spain. He grew up in Dagupan as the child of impoverished peasants who sold their land and carabao to give Edades an education. After completing high school, Edades and five other classmates decided to seek opportunities to study in America. They wrote to several universities, eventually deciding on the University of Washington in Seattle as they could earn their way through school. The entire Dagupan township pitched in to support the young men, with the mayor making a public call for financial donations. Contributions rolled in, as much as the farming community could afford; sometimes in amounts as small as five or ten pesos, or even in donations of chickens and eggs. They bought the cheapest passage available: travelling steerage class on the Japanese freighter T.K.K Tenyo Maru, where their fellow passengers were Chinese coolies and Filipino workers headed for plantations in Hawaii. After a two-month voyage, Edades arrived in San Francisco. He first went to Alaska, working grueling hours in a salmon cannery to raise money for his fees before finally enrolling at the university to study architecture and painting.
In 1922, Edades experienced his first exposure to modern art - a revelation which altered the trajectory of his painting career, and subsequently Philippine art history. A travelling exhibition from the New York Armory Hall came to Seattle, featuring works by European artists such as Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and the Surrealists. This controversial exhibition roused the conservative artistic community in Seattle, who heatedly debated the Modernist sensibility - its tendency towards figurative distortion, experimental use of color, and dismissal of representational faithfulness.
The works produced during Edades' Seattle period, from 1922 to 1928 are his finest accomplishments, revealing his earliest and boldest forays into the Modernist manner. His brushwork is powerful yet sensitive; forged with a luminous sense of light in spite of heavy colors and an abbreviated sense of realism. Many works were small format portraits of close friends and colleagues, such as his art professor and mentor Walter F. Isaacs, his fiance, Jean Garrot, Edades' own self portrait; as well as this present work American Football Player. Other compositions focused on salon or genre scenes such as The Sketch and The Market, which Edades entered for state-wide art competitions to much critical acclaim. Perhaps the best known work of this period is The Builders, Edades' submission for his Master's thesis and now in the collection of the Cultural Centre of the Philippines.
In 1928, Edades returned to the Philippines. Appalled with the state of the art scene, which had stagnated into imitations of 19th century painting or the romanticized archetypes of Amorsolo and his ilk, Edades decided to stage an exhibition to introduce the public to modern art. In a mirroring of the 1922 New York Armory Hall exhibition in Seattle, Edades' one-man show at the Philippine Colombian Club caused a social uproar. He was heavily excoriated by Manila artists for espousing never-before-seen painting techniques that radically departed from the old standard. However Edades' controversial exhibition would later be hailed as true birthplace of Philippine modern art.
From the works included in the 1928 Philippine Colombian Club exhibition, fewer than ten works remain in existence, with the majority being in museums or important private collections. Like most of Edades' Seattle portraits, American Football Player is painted in small format to increase intimacy between viewer and subject. The sitter is isolated against a dark background, vividly and movingly painted, despite closely adhering to Modernist principles, for instance Cezanne-like contrasts of shading and a shallow pictorial plane. Edades was a genius at painterly restraint; using exactly the right number of brushstrokes in order to capture the mood and very essence of the sitter, which he prized above representing a photographic likeness. In American Football Player, the faraway look in the young man's eyes is particularly poignant.
Who exactly is the 'American Football Player'? Inscribed on the reverse of the painting, in Edades' handwriting is the name 'Ham Greene', the single clue to his identity. Hamilton L. Greene was a college mate of Edades, some years his senior. During the 1920s, Greene was the first and only African-American college football player at the University of Washington, as well as an exceptional law student. Halfback Greene was also the only African-American to play in the 1924 Rose Bowl, the pinnacle of college football. In pre-Civil Rights America of the 1920s, we can imagine that Greene's role in college football - the passion of collegiate fraternities and the general public - in a predominantly white team, university, and American state must have led to an immense amount of racial pressure and harassment. Edades himself had experienced racial taunting and prejudice during his tenure in Seattle. When he first arrived at the University of Washington, he worked as a waiter in a college fraternity house, whose members objected to sharing the toilet and other facilities with Edades and the other Philippine students. This incident is documented by Purita Kalaw-Ledesma and Amadis Guerrero in their monograph, Edades: National Artist, observing: "But the memory of the racial slur cast upon him, which recurred often during his long years in the United States, stayed with Edades and firmed up his resolve to return to the Philippines as soon as his studies and other affairs were completed. "
As such, Edades' sympathies and interest must surely have been with Hamilton Greene and it is highly possible that an unlikely friendship was forged between the pair, leading to the painting of this portrait.
Edades was born in 1895, during one of the most turbulent and significant periods in Philippine history, as the country was mired in a revolution of independence against Spain. He grew up in Dagupan as the child of impoverished peasants who sold their land and carabao to give Edades an education. After completing high school, Edades and five other classmates decided to seek opportunities to study in America. They wrote to several universities, eventually deciding on the University of Washington in Seattle as they could earn their way through school. The entire Dagupan township pitched in to support the young men, with the mayor making a public call for financial donations. Contributions rolled in, as much as the farming community could afford; sometimes in amounts as small as five or ten pesos, or even in donations of chickens and eggs. They bought the cheapest passage available: travelling steerage class on the Japanese freighter T.K.K Tenyo Maru, where their fellow passengers were Chinese coolies and Filipino workers headed for plantations in Hawaii. After a two-month voyage, Edades arrived in San Francisco. He first went to Alaska, working grueling hours in a salmon cannery to raise money for his fees before finally enrolling at the university to study architecture and painting.
In 1922, Edades experienced his first exposure to modern art - a revelation which altered the trajectory of his painting career, and subsequently Philippine art history. A travelling exhibition from the New York Armory Hall came to Seattle, featuring works by European artists such as Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and the Surrealists. This controversial exhibition roused the conservative artistic community in Seattle, who heatedly debated the Modernist sensibility - its tendency towards figurative distortion, experimental use of color, and dismissal of representational faithfulness.
The works produced during Edades' Seattle period, from 1922 to 1928 are his finest accomplishments, revealing his earliest and boldest forays into the Modernist manner. His brushwork is powerful yet sensitive; forged with a luminous sense of light in spite of heavy colors and an abbreviated sense of realism. Many works were small format portraits of close friends and colleagues, such as his art professor and mentor Walter F. Isaacs, his fiance, Jean Garrot, Edades' own self portrait; as well as this present work American Football Player. Other compositions focused on salon or genre scenes such as The Sketch and The Market, which Edades entered for state-wide art competitions to much critical acclaim. Perhaps the best known work of this period is The Builders, Edades' submission for his Master's thesis and now in the collection of the Cultural Centre of the Philippines.
In 1928, Edades returned to the Philippines. Appalled with the state of the art scene, which had stagnated into imitations of 19th century painting or the romanticized archetypes of Amorsolo and his ilk, Edades decided to stage an exhibition to introduce the public to modern art. In a mirroring of the 1922 New York Armory Hall exhibition in Seattle, Edades' one-man show at the Philippine Colombian Club caused a social uproar. He was heavily excoriated by Manila artists for espousing never-before-seen painting techniques that radically departed from the old standard. However Edades' controversial exhibition would later be hailed as true birthplace of Philippine modern art.
From the works included in the 1928 Philippine Colombian Club exhibition, fewer than ten works remain in existence, with the majority being in museums or important private collections. Like most of Edades' Seattle portraits, American Football Player is painted in small format to increase intimacy between viewer and subject. The sitter is isolated against a dark background, vividly and movingly painted, despite closely adhering to Modernist principles, for instance Cezanne-like contrasts of shading and a shallow pictorial plane. Edades was a genius at painterly restraint; using exactly the right number of brushstrokes in order to capture the mood and very essence of the sitter, which he prized above representing a photographic likeness. In American Football Player, the faraway look in the young man's eyes is particularly poignant.
Who exactly is the 'American Football Player'? Inscribed on the reverse of the painting, in Edades' handwriting is the name 'Ham Greene', the single clue to his identity. Hamilton L. Greene was a college mate of Edades, some years his senior. During the 1920s, Greene was the first and only African-American college football player at the University of Washington, as well as an exceptional law student. Halfback Greene was also the only African-American to play in the 1924 Rose Bowl, the pinnacle of college football. In pre-Civil Rights America of the 1920s, we can imagine that Greene's role in college football - the passion of collegiate fraternities and the general public - in a predominantly white team, university, and American state must have led to an immense amount of racial pressure and harassment. Edades himself had experienced racial taunting and prejudice during his tenure in Seattle. When he first arrived at the University of Washington, he worked as a waiter in a college fraternity house, whose members objected to sharing the toilet and other facilities with Edades and the other Philippine students. This incident is documented by Purita Kalaw-Ledesma and Amadis Guerrero in their monograph, Edades: National Artist, observing: "But the memory of the racial slur cast upon him, which recurred often during his long years in the United States, stayed with Edades and firmed up his resolve to return to the Philippines as soon as his studies and other affairs were completed. "
As such, Edades' sympathies and interest must surely have been with Hamilton Greene and it is highly possible that an unlikely friendship was forged between the pair, leading to the painting of this portrait.