A Passionate Colorful Life Of An Artist Pacita Abad
Pacita Abad (1946-2004) was born in Basco, Batanes, a small island in the northernmost part of the Philippines, between Luzon and Taiwan. Her more-than-thirty-year painting career began when she travelled to the United States to undertake graduate studies. After that trip, Pacita never stopped travelling or painting.
This is probably one of Pacita Abad’s last creations before she died of lung cancer. Pacita Abad was an Ivatan woman known for her colorful works. From the NCCA website: "In April 2003, Abad declared her desire to paint the Alkaff Bridge, which spanned the Singapore River. By late November, her wish was granted, and although in a hospital, she wanted to work on it immediately. The steel-tube bridge weighed 230 tons, spanned 55 meters and rose 35 meters above the river. Despite the daunting nature of the task, she finished painting it with the help of a project team and with many sessions with doctors and trips to the hospital. By January 2004, the bridge, now covered with vibrant hues and circles, was inaugurated, became a tourist attraction and became to be known as Pacita’s Painted Bridge."Abad studied painting at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C. and The Art Students League in New York City. She lived on 5 different continents and working in more than 80 countries, including Guatemala, Mexico, India, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Indonesia.
She had over 40 solo exhibitions at museums and galleries in the U.S., Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America. She also participated in more than 50 group and traveling exhibitions throughout the world. Abad’s work is now in public, corporate and private art collections in over 70 countries.
Her early paintings were primarily figurative socio-political works of people and primitive masks. Another series was large scale paintings of underwater scenes, tropical flowers and animal wildlife. Pacita’s most extensive body of work, however, is her vibrant, colorful abstract work - many very large scale canvases, but also a number of small collages - on a range of materials from canvas and paper to bark cloth, metal, ceramics and glass. Abad created over 5,000 artworks and painted a 55-meter long Alkaff Bridge in Singapore and covered it with 2,350 multicolored circles.
Like the artist’s life, Pacita’s paintings are a celebration of pure passion, joy and color that come straight from her heart.
Source:
Hats Off
ReplyDelete- :)
Wonderful to stumble upon your website and writing about Pacita Abad and her works. Do check out our new archival websitehttp://www.pacitaabad.com, as well as the blue “View on Wall” feature in the Art section. The ArtBridge badly needs to be repainted and we are hoping that the project can be done to restore its vibrancy, perhaps we might start a “Repaint the Singapore ArtBridge” movement soon! Best regards.
ReplyDeleteHi Jack and Kristi
ReplyDeletePacita Abad is one of the most admirable Pinay and a true inspiration to everyone, that there is nothing out there that will stop you from pursuing what you want to do in life. I hope that your project will push through because we think that something so vibrant and so realistic should have it's justice in this world.