Bacchus Asleep
signed and dated 1989 (lower right)
oil on canvas
20" x 29 1/2" (51 cm x 75 cm)

PROVENANCEA gift from the artist to Mr. Edwin Garcia


Bacchus Asleep was a gift by the Filipino global artist David Medalla to Edwin Garcia, Chairman of the Board of the Garcia College of Technology, the premier business and engineering school in Kalibo, Aklan, and founded in 1968 by his parents, Don Florencio M. Garcia and Doña Enrica Reyes. The piece depicts Bacchus, the Roman god of agriculture, fertility, wine, and unrestrained revelry. In this work, the deity is in a state of dormancy, perhaps due to intoxication.When Garcia received the work, it was sealed inside a tube and contained a letter, which had been lost when he moved to Kalibo. Medalla and Garcia met sometime during the 1960s. Medalla was then staying briefly at the iconic Malate coffee shop along Mabini St., Los Indios Bravos, founded by Beatrice "Betsy" Romualdez-Francia. During its heydays, the cafeÌ was a gathering place for artists, writers, intellectuals, and bohemians. Its frequenters included future National Artists—Cesar Legaspi, H.R. Ocampo, Federico Alcuaz, Ang Kiukok, and Bencab.It was a felicitous occasion for Garcia to have met Medalla at the famous watering hole, for they eventually became life-long friends. They even frequently met whenever the latter was in New York or London. Medalla moved to the United Kingdom in the early 1960s and settled there for good. There, he co-founded the Signals Gallery in London in 1964. Medalla occasionally returned to the Philippines, where he passed away in December 2020. (A.M.)