Landscape
signed and dated 1981 (bottom)
oil on canvas
44" x 24" (112 cm x 61 cm)






WRITE UP:
The 1980 Mobil Art Award is a veritable who’s who in the Philippine art scene: the Philippine greats like Ang Kiukok, Jose Joya, Danny Dalena, and Onib Olmedo, among others, went toeto-toe in a “first-of-a-kind event” as described by critic and Mobil Arts Award jury Alice Guillermo in her book The 1980 Mobil Art Awards. In the same book, she listed four artists as “Artists Beyond Categories” with one of the artists mentioned being Prudencio Lamarroza. Prudencio Lamarroza’s striking works are all incredibly his own; he utilizes colors, rhythm, and texture and spins them to create radical and unique pieces. He draws from his vibrant childhood: growing up in Ambalayat, Tagudin, Ilocos Sur, Lamarozza spent his childhood frolicking the banks of the Chico and Amburayan Rivers. Here, he found different sorts of stones – gray and smoothed out by the raging currents that, when polished by a wet cloth, glistened like gemstones under the vibrant sun. This whimsical piece in turn is a love letter to his alluring childhood; it is an amalgamation of his boyhood in Tagudin. The rocks that are central to his artistic growth are clustered on the ground; the background as well as the foliage of the tree on the center of the canvas shows a river reminiscent of the Chico and Amburayan Rivers that Lamarroza played in as a child. “Lamarroza’s sense of art…is anchored in the past,” writes Manuel D. Duldulao in Prudencio Lamarroza: His Life and Art. “Art is invention, but it is also remembering. ”(Hannah Valiente)