The painting presents a glimpse of the Filipino artist’s hometown in Batanes
Leon Gallery just made another record during its recently concluded Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2022 after a Pacita Abad masterpiece got sold for a whopping P9,344,000. The priced work, called “Tevan Galano,” was part of the artist’s “Paintings of People and Landscapes of Batanes” exhibit showcased in the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1985.
“From a starting price of P300,000, the piece sold for a whopping P9.3 Million. The work itself is among only a dozen pieces by Abad featuring such Philippine scenes,” Leon Gallery posted on social media.
According to Leon Gallery’s website, the "Batanes" series highlights the “distinct and unique culture of the Philippines’ northernmost region” and offers a view of the artist’s hometown and its Ivatan people.
Born in 1946, Pacita, who was a daughter of a congressman, was set to pursue a life in politics. With her opposition to the Marcos regime and her family being “targeted and their home in Manila,” she was pushed to complete her law studies in Spain.
“She then met and married artist, George Kleiman, who introduced her to painting and the San Francisco art world. The relationship was short-lived, and in 1973 she decided to spend a year traveling by land across Asia with Jack Garrity, a development economist,” as per her bio on her website. “On the seventh of December, a few months after her 58th birthday, Pacita Abad passes away after a three-year battle with cancer.”
Know more about Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2022 here.
Hello, readers! Do you have a story you want us to feature? Send us a message on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter and let’s talk about it.