Lot description
America signed and dated 1998 (lower left and verso) oil on canvas 48" x 36" (122 cm x 91 cm) PROVENANCE Property of the Artist EXHIBITED “The Last Full Show” (2016), a landmark retrospective at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Danilo Echavaria Dalena (born January 4th, 1942), social realist par excellence, is celebrated for his satirical wit and cutting visual commentaries on the Filipino condition. His playground is what has been termed ‘the underbelly’ of Metro Manila: its betting halls of the now-lost Jai-Alai arena on Taft Avenue, the beer gardens of Cubao, the chaos of Quiapo, and even the city’s forlorn public toilets. In this entirely unique painting, Dalena trains his sights on that behemoth America, ironically touted as the land of the free, not to mention of milk and honey. It is his first — and last — look at the country and its people, the working drawings for an intended series having disappeared. A pity, since every inch of this superpower would have made delightful material for Dalena’s mischievous insights. Nevertheless, in this surviving solitary work is Dalena’s familiar, faceless, bulbous figure whose sheer physicality dominates, as the United States does the world, a muddy anonymous background. The top-knotted woman is dressed in the all-American uniform of tee and tight jeans, both stretched to its limit, that becomes its very own landscape. Across the t-shirt run the words “America” and “Perry Ellis” (a designer who peaked in the 1980s, making this a poignant fashion artifact of influence gone awry.) In one fell swoop, Dalena encapsulates the mindlessness of hyperconsumerism and the absurdity, as always, of urban life — not to mention the larger-than-life scale of the country’s inhabitants. The colors are lurid and appetite-inducing, much like those of its fast-food parlors. “America” contains a powerful theme that crosses borders and says as much about that country as it does its most well-known colony, the Philippines, and for that matter, the rest of the world: Where lies identity if not as a burden on one’s back. Danilo E. Dalena was the recipient of the prestigious Thirteen Artists Awards in 1972, conferred by the Cultural Center of the Philippines; first prize at the influential Art Association of the Philippines competition in 1974; and Mobil Art Awards grand prize in 1980. (Lisa Guerrero Nakpil)
