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Pacita Abad

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Pacita Abad
Abad in 1990
Born
Pacita Abad

October 5, 1946
Basco, Batanes, Philippines
DiedDecember 7, 2004(2004-12-07) (aged 58)
Singapore
Resting placeBasco, Batanes, Philippines
NationalityFilipino, American
EducationCorcoran School of Art
Art Students League of New York
Alma materUniversity of the Philippines Diliman (BA, 1968)
Lone Mountain College (MA, 1972)
Notable workAlkaff Bridge
Websitehttp://www.pacitaabad.com/

Pacita Abad (October 5, 1946 – December 7, 2004) was born in Basco, Batanes, a small island in the northernmost part of the Philippines, between Luzon and Taiwan. Her more than 30-year painting career began when she traveled to the United States to undertake graduate studies in Spain. She exhibited her work in over 200 museums, galleries and other venues, including 75 solo shows, around the world. Abad's work is now in public, corporate and private art collections in over 70 countries.

Personal Life and Education

Ati-Atihan (1983). Acrylic on stitched and padded canvass.

Abad earned a BA in political science at the University of the Philippines in 1967. In 1970, she went to the United States intending to study law, but instead earned a degree (MA) in Asian History at Lone Mountain College (University of San Francisco) in 1972, where she supported herself as a seamstress and a typist.[1] 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 6 different continents and worked in more than 50 countries,[2] including Guatemala, Mexico, India, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Indonesia. At Corcoran School of Art Pacita studied under Berthold Schmutzhart[3] and Blaine Larson in which the two professors had helped launch her artistic career. Pacita then further pursued her studies at The Art Students League in New York where she concentrated on still life and figurative drawing under John Helicker and Robert Beverly Hale.

Filipina: A racial identity crisis (1990). Acrylic, handwoven cloth, dyed yarn, beads, gold thread on stitched and padded canvass.
File:Painted Bridge.jpg
The Painted Bridge. Photo by Ning de Guzman

During Pacita's time in San Francisco art scene she had married painter George Kleiman, though they later separated. She then decided to hitchhike across Asia for a year with Jack, and then returned to the U.S. to study painting, first at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C. and later, at The Art Students League in New York City. She later married Stanford MBA student, Jack Garrity, who became an international development economist.[4]

Works

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 4,500 artworks.[5] She painted a 55-meter long Alkaff Bridge in Singapore and covered it with 2,350 multicolored circles, just a few months before she died.

Abad developed a technique of trapunto painting (named after a quilting technique), which entailed stitching and stuffing her painted canvases to give them a three-dimensional, sculptural effect. She then began incorporating into the surface of her paintings materials such as traditional cloth, mirrors, beads, shells, plastic buttons and other objects

Pacita had also received numerous awards during her artistic career in which her most memorable award was her first. Pacita had received the TOYM Award for Art in the Philippines in 1984.[6] Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) is an award that has always been given to men for the last 25 years until in 1984 where Pacita Abad became the first woman ever to receive this prestigious award. In Pacita receiving this award it had created a public uproar where angry letters sent to editors of published newspapers from men and male artists who thought that they, not Pacita, should have received the award. Despite such uproar Pacita was thrilled that she had broken the sex barrier in which she stated in her acceptance speech that “it was long overdue that Filipina women were recognized, as the Philippines was full of outstanding women” and referred proudly to her mother.

Legacy

Abad died of lung cancer in 2004 in Singapore. She is buried in Batanes, Philippines, next to her studio, Fundacion Pacita. The Fundacion was "lovingly refurbished" by her brother, Butch Abad and is now called Fundacion Pacita Nature Lodge.[7]

Pacita Abad's works have been displayed in numerous galleries and museums in the Philippines during the annual Philippine Arts Month and art festivals.[8][9][10][11]

Quote

"I always see the world through colour, although my vision, perspective and paintings are constantly influenced by new ideas and changing environments. I feel like I am an ambassador of colours, always projecting a positive mood that helps make the world smile."[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Brooklyn Museum: Pacita Abad". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  2. ^ "Pacita Abad: Woman of Color". www.pacitaabad.com. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  3. ^ "All-Media Exhibit - Sept 2009 - The Art League - Alexandria, VA". www.theartleague.org. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  4. ^ Thelma B. Kintanar, Sylvia Mendez Ventura, Self-Portraits 2: Fourteen Filipina Artists Speak (Ateneo de Manila University Press 1999): pp. 3-22.
  5. ^ "Pacita Abad: Woman of Color". www.pacitaabad.com. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  6. ^ "Pacita Abad: Woman of Color". www.pacitaabad.com. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  7. ^ "Fundacion Pacita Batanes Nature Lodge, Basco, Batanes, Philippines". Fundacion Pacita. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  8. ^ Duque, Mary Jessel. "Pacita Abad: A million times a woman, an artist". philstar.com. Retrieved Jul 31, 2020.
  9. ^ Charm, Neil (2018-06-06). "Pacita Abad: the global Filipino artist who had a million things to say". BusinessWorld. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  10. ^ Manlapig, Marga (Apr 16, 2018). "A Creative Defiance: MCAD features works of Pacita Abad". Tatler Philippines. Retrieved Jul 31, 2020.
  11. ^ "Google Doodle honors Philippine artist and activist Pacita Abad". 9to5google.com. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  12. ^ "A Passion to Paint: The Colorful World of Pacita Abad". The World Bank, Art Program Exhibition & Events. Retrieved 2013-04-26.

Further reading

  • Abad, Pacita; Lapid Rodriguez, M Teresa (2001). Palay (rice) : Trapunto murals by Pacita Abad. Upper Montclair, N.J.: Montclair State University Art Galleries. OCLC 48787832.
  • Findlay-Brown, Ian (1996). Pacita Abad: Exploring the Spirit. National Gallery of Indonesia. ISBN 978-979-95029-0-2.
  • Abad, Pacita (1998). Alice Guillermo (ed.). Abstract Emotions. Museum Nasional (Indonesia). ISBN 978-979-95424-0-3.
  • Abad, Pacita (1999). James T. Bennett (ed.). Pacita Abad: Door to Life. Pacita Abad. ISBN 978-979-95029-1-9.
  • Abad, Pacita (2001). Lin, Tay Swee (ed.). Pacita Abad: The Sky is the Limit. Pacita Abad. ISBN 978-981-04-3407-6.
  • Abad, Pacita; Findlay-Brown, Ian (2002). Pacita Abad: Endless Blues. National Gallery of Indonesia. ISBN 978-981-04-7128-6.
  • Abad, Pacita (2003). Cid Reyes (ed.). Pacita Abad: Circles in My Mind. Singapore Tyler Print Institute. ISBN 978-981-04-9418-6.
  • Abad, Pacita (2004). Ian Findlay-Brown; Ruben Defeo (eds.). Obsession. Pacita Abad. ISBN 978-981-05-1549-2.
  • Abad, Pacita (2004). Jack Garrity; Michael Liew (eds.). Pacita's Painted Bridge. Pacita Abad. ISBN 978-981-05-1020-6.
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