Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, founder of the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP), was a towering and extraordinary figure in the development of Philippine art for more than five decades after the war and well into the postmodern era. Mining her extensive museum-worthy art collection and her own voluminous archive, the authors of this monograph trace the day-to-day activities and concerns of the emergent artistic communities she fostered and the tangents they pursued in various art movements. Clarissa O. Chikiamco covers the years 1948–1969; Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez analyzes the turbulent decade of the 1970s; and Patrick D. Flores contrasts and parallels Purita’s pioneering 1955 masteral thesis on art education with insights by artist Fernando Zóbel and poet journalist Francisco Arcellana. Edited by Purissima Benitez-Johannot, this book documents Purita’s historical record from 1948 to 2000 and her single-minded faith in the empowering possibilities of art to transcend the quotidian.

Publisher: 
Vibal Foundation & Kalaw Ledesma Foundation, Philippines

Publication Date:
2017

Format:
Hardcover / 11.25 x 9 inches / 200 pages / Color

Language:
English

ISBN: 978-971-97-0699-1