Bar Scene
signed and dated 1976 (lower right)
oil on canvas
30” x 32” (61 cm x 91 cm)

Provenance:
Private Collection, Manila

This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Gisella Olmedo - Araneta confirming the authenticity of this lot

Onib Olmedo was one of the leading figurative expressionists of his time whose works were decidedly dark and maudlin. Distorted and disfigured were his characters — all bearing some form of psychological torment or trouble.

Yet, as Alice Guillermo wrote: “[his art had an] ennobling impact on the viewer: the message that no matter how desperate life may be, the human spirit will triumph in the end.”

In this somber piece, we see a man slumped in a bar after a night of drowning his sorrows.