“Isabel”; acrylic
on canvas,
152.4 cm x 91.44 cm
RAYMUND LEGASPI’S ‘DREAMSCAPE’
IT’S TEMPTING to call Raymond Legaspi the Fernando Botero of Asia. Thena again, it would be like calling the Eraserheads, Pinoy Beatles. Both are misleading and not quite fair. The associations, which are crutches in articulating the uninitiated’s appreciation, do, however, prevail. Just
as the Eheads have the 60s Brit melodic lines, Legaspi’s stout subjects echo the Columbian figurative artist and sculptor’s favorite
figures.
But for this Silay City artist, Boterisimo is not so much an end as it is a means to articulate what the West Negrense culture aspires: Abundance.
Abundance not only in wealth but in leisure time, which Legaspi depicts in “Dreamscape,” his acrylic on canvas collection of fleshy women in various sleeping positions. The collection can be viewed in Qube Gallery at The Crossroads in Banilad until April 28.
raymond legaspi
Asked if this set espouses any philosophy or tradition, the down-to-earth artist tells us that, if anything, it expresses his longing for more leisure time, which he especially missed while working 20 years in an advertising agency in Manila.
This relaxed state he had dreamed of is best captured in “Isabel,” a 162.4mm x 91.44mm acrylic on canvas, where the portly subject is asleep outdoors in a rattan hammock while Calachchi flowers fall all around her.
“Maskara” on the other hand gives its nod to the Bacolod October festival by having masks painted on the bed sheet.
Shapes of subjects aside, Legaspi’s works have patterns in the foreground and background that could smother out any viewer’s horror vacui. This has to do with the painter’s graphic art background.
“Starry Nights” and “Blue Mountains” though evoke an older calmer orientalism where the patterns are more subdued but still offering that dream of abundance.
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