Portrait of a Girl (Bambina Olivares)
signed and dated 1984 (lower right)
pastel on paper
25 1/4" x 19 1/2" (64 cm x 50 cm)
Accompanied by a certificate issued by Ms. Gisella Olmedo-Araneta confirming the authenticity of this lot



Onib Olmedo has come to be known for his figurative, surrealistexpressionist portraits. Such is the case with this portrait depicting Bambina Olivares, current communications consultant for the new Metropolitan Museum of Manila and Director of the Arts, Culture, and Education Programme of the Manila House Private Members Club, Inc. Olivares says that she had forgotten about the work and just recently rediscovered the pastel piece upon emptying their mother’s house. “It’s supposed to be a portrait of me rendered in Onib’s signature style that I like to think of as neo-Expressionist-GothicSurrealist,” says Olivares. “I don’t think one can sit for Onib and expect to find a cheery likeness of oneself! “But I think he managed to create a portrait that is mesmerizing in the way the use of red draws one in, contrasted against the black lines that make up the hair and other features. The brown and orange tones in the background evoke a kind of surreal smoldering flame, giving the painting an otherworldly feel,” adds Olivares. Olmedo created this portrait in 1984 when Olivares was still an intern at the Ayala Museum before she left for Paris to study Art History at the Institut Catholique de Paris. Olivares recalls the day that Olmedo created this portrait. She reveals that the artist “was full of cheer as he picked up his pastels and began drawing on paper.” “It was quite bewildering to reconcile the artist and the art, but one could not help but be impressed with the briskness with which Onib worked—his confident strokes, his use of color, and his ability to imbue emotion. I thought that he had looked at me and captured the ambivalence in me. “It wasn’t the most flattering of portraits, but it had a compelling quality that somehow always haunted me,” Olivares concludes. (A.M.)