Painting by Anita Magsaysay-Ho
ANITA CORPUS MAGSAYSAY-HO (Philippine, b. May 25, 1914, d. May 5, 2012) aka Anita Magsaysay, Anita Magsaysay Ho
Styles: Philippine Modern, Neo-Realism
Subjects: Philippine genre scenes, landscapes, harvest and market scenes, female nudes
Anita Magsaysay-Ho is a Philippine painter, considered by many to be one of the most important and gifted Philippine modernists. In 1958, a panel of experts assembled by the Manila Chronicle named her one of the 6 most outstanding painters in Philippine history. Magsaysay-Ho’s best known canvases, which often have both realist and stylized aspects, celebrate the beauty of Philippine women engaged in everyday tasks.
Magsaysay-Ho was born in Manila in May, 1914, the daughter of Ambrosio Magsaysay, an engineer, and Armilla Corpus. Anita’s first cousin, Ramon Magsaysay, served as President of the Philippines from December of 1953 until his death in a 1957 plane crash. Beginning her studies at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts at the age of 13 -- accompanied by a nanny -- she studied with Fabian de la Rosa, Vicente Rivera y Mir and also Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo. Fernando Amorsolo was her landscape teacher, while Pablo Amorsolo taught her drawing.
She also received private tutoring from the noted cartoonist Ireneo Miranda. She recieved additional instruction at the UP’s School of Design where her instructors included Victorio Edades and Enrique Ruiz, and at the "Atelier of Modern Art" founded by Edades.
In the 1930s Anita Magsaysay travelled to the United States where she continued her studies at the Cranbrook Academy in Michigan. Anita also took courses in oil painting, and drawing at the Art Student’s League in New York City. While in New York, Anita met her future husband, Robert Ho, who was also a student. After their marriage, he bought postwar ships in the United States and brought them to China where he established a shipping business: Magsaysay Inc. Because of her husband’s work, the Hos and moved frequently, living in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. Anita, who has moved over 40 times in her lifetime, was soon raising 5 children. Anita was painting whenever possible, and always had a home studio where her children would sketch, play the piano and listen to music while she painted.
During the early 1940s Magsaysay - Ho's works showed the influence of Fernando Amorsolo both in their subject matter and their luminosity. Gradually, her paintings evolved towards modernism as they moved towards cubist distortion and evolved stylized visual rhythms. She was included on a list of “Thirteen Moderns” compiled by artist Victor Edades, and was at one point known as the "female Amorsolo."
In the 1950s Magsaysay-Ho exhibited at the important Philippine Art Gallery (PAG) which brought her public attention and acclaim. Her work was grouped with that of other Neo-Realists including Lydia Arguilla and Nena Saguil. Anita’s paintings of this period featured women at work: harvesting fruit, gathering and sheaving grain, or selling fish in the marketplace. Her works were formally activated by bold brushwork and strong contrasts of dark and light tones. In the 1960s the space of Magsaysay-Ho’s paintings opened up and the resulting images were more relaxed, with clearly articulated and separated figures. The lines in her work softened, and her modeling became more consistent. These paintings have the feeling of being choreographed, and are very graceful in their effect.
In the 1970s Magsaysay-Ho explored a new style influenced by Chinese calligraphy. Her paintings were often decorated with delicately controlled ink blots that suggested rock formations, vegetation or waves. At their best, they balanced human gestures with the calligraphic interest provided by the ink blots.
In the late 1980’s the artist had a “Green Period.” Green-hued fruit and vegetables mingle with female figures that seem to resemble plants or fruits themselves. The women in these paintings feature oval faces with high cheekbones and narrow eyes. Another series that followed the green paintings featured half figures surrounded by baskets, fruit and birds. These figures are solid and highly refined, rendered in an Asian palette that counter-balanced stark contrasts between colors such as burnt sienna and yellow-green.
In her nineties Magsaysay-Ho became the subject of a biography by Alfredo Roces, “In Praise of Women,” published in 2005. She states, in the text; “In my works I always celebrate the women of the Philippines. I regard them with deep admiration and they continue to inspire me—their movements and gestures, their expressions of happiness and frustration; their diligence and shortcomings; their joy of living. I know very well the strength, hard work and quiet dignity of Philippine women, for I am one of them.”
After suffering a stroke in 2009 Magsaysay-Ho stopped talking. One day, regaining her speech, she called her husband and told him "Robert, you are the only man I ever loved in my life."
Awards:
2nd Prize: The Manila Grand Opera House Exhibition, 1950, for “Five Senses”
1st Prize: The Philippine Art Association (PAG), 1952, for “The Cooks”
2nd Prize: The Philippine Art Association (PAG), 1953, for “Fruit Vendors”
1st Prize: The Philippine Art Association (PAG), 1959, for “Mending the Nets”
1st Prize: The Philippine Art Association (PAG), 1960, for “Two Women”
2nd Prize: The Philippine Art Association (PAG), 1962, for “Trio”
Collections:
The Ateneo Art Museum, Ateneo de Manila University, The Philippines
The Lopez Memorial Museum and Library, Pasig City, The Philippines
The Metropolitan Museum of Manila, The Philippines
The Yuchengo Museum, Makati City, The Philippines

MAGSAYSAY-Ho, ANITA CORPUS b. Manila 25 May 1914. Painter. She is the daughter of Ambrosio
Magsaysay and Armilla Corpus. She is married to Robert Ho. She studied at the University of the Philippines
(UP) School of Fine Arts under Fabian de la Rosa, Vicente Rivera y Mir, and Fernando and Pablo Amorsolo.
She also studied at the School of Design under Victorio Edades and Enrique Ruiz. From there she proceeded to the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, USA, While in the United States, she affiliated with the Art
Students League in New York where she took courses in oil painting, graphics, and figure sketching. During the early 194os Magsaysay Ho's works showed the influence of Amorsolo in choice of subjects and in treatment of light and color, However, these works had very modernist tendencies, such as the use of expressive distortion and concern for design and rhythm. The Philippine Art Gallery (PAG) did much to situate Magsaysay Ho's works showed the influence of Amorsolo in choice of subjects and in treatment of light and color, However, these works had very modernist tendencies, such as the use of expressive distortion and concern for design and rhythm. The Philippine Art Gallery (PAG) did much to situate Magsaysay Ho's art in the modernist movement of the 1950s. The original neorealists expanded to the PAG group which included
Lydia Arguilla, Nena Saguil, and Magsaysay Ho's art in the modernist movement of the 1950s. The original neorealists expanded to the PAG group which included Lydia Arguilla, Nena Saguil, and Magsaysay Ho as its women artists. In her paintings of the PAG period, which had as subjects women harvesting fruits, gathering sheaves of grain, or selling fish in the market in their baro Ho as its women artists. In her paintings of the
PAG period, which had as subjects women harvesting fruits, gathering sheaves of grain, or selling fish in the market in their baro't saya and bandana, Magsaysay Ho emphasized movement and bustling interaction by means of bold, vigorous brushstrokes and strong tonal contrasts of light and dark, In the 1960s she opened up space and allowed a more leisurely disposition of her women figures which became clearly articulated and separate, the better to bring out the relationship of their movements and their serial rhythms. The lines tended to soften with a more consistent modelling, the light and dark tones, creating a more harmonious and mellifluous effect that hinted of choreographic grace. The style developed into paintings with movement and greater interaction among the figures. Her work of the 1970s showed the artist exploring a new style influenced by Chinese calligraphy, and a secondary quasiwriter atmosphere. While her subjects were still the native women, she randomly spattered her canvases with delicately controlled ink blots which suggested rock formations, vegetation or waves in the sea.
Her concern had evidently become purely formal: balance the interest and variety of the human gestures and movements with the dynamic and assertive power of the ink blots. A distinct period in the mid late 1980s may be called the Green Period after its predominant coloration. The predominant green is the hue of leaves, fruit, and vegetables; the women figures themselves share this quality symbolically as they themselves become like plants and fruit in nature. The physical type of her sisterhood is now clearly defined: the oval face with high cheekbones and narrow eyes, brows softly curving up to the temples. In the late 1980s Magsaysay Ho began to paint large half figures. She filled the pictorial field entirely with female figures surrounded by baskets, fruits, or tame birds hopping around them. In place of spontaneity and lightness which characterized her earlier period, her figures and forms acquired solidarity of mass rendered in a highly refined manner. Her colors became very Asian, using stark contrasts such as burnt sienna and yellow greens. Magsaysay Ho won second prize for Five Senses in the 1950 Manila Grand Opera House Exhibition. She won second prize for Fish Vendors in the second watercolor exhibition of Graphic Arts in 1952. Her awards from the Art Association of the Philippines include: first prize, The Cooks, 1952: second Prize, Fruit Vendors,
1953, third prize, Mending the Nets, 1959; first prize, Two Women, 1960; and second prize, Trio, 1962.

The Philippine art community is mourning the passing of Anita Magsaysay-Ho, whose slit-eyed, bandanna-wearing rural women—shown cooking, selling fruits and feeding chickens—became iconic figures synonymous with the Filipina.
In a statement, the National Museum of the Philippines expressed “great sorrow” that “one of the greatest Filipina painters” is gone.
Salvador “Buds” Convocar, president of Saturday Group, seemed to sum it up best when he said, “We have lost a national treasure.”
Magsaysay-Ho, 97, had long been regarded with something akin to reverence by her peers in the visual arts and many others beyond it. Partly, it had to do with her skills, as she excelled and gained fame with her egg tempera paintings, a difficult medium involving elaborate techniques of applying paint layers and glazes—this, while the method was being abandoned by others of her generation.
But the respect accorded her also had to do with her personal bearing. Her reserved demeanor, even as she was making headlines way into her senior years, inspired awe and admiration.
“Despite her fame and place in the Philippine and Southeast Asian art world, she remained this quiet presence who knew of her own achievements but remained humble,” affirms Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador, PhD, assistant director of the National Museum.
Labrador believes Magsaysay-Ho’s greatest legacy is her successful blending of her conservative, academic training from the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts, Art Students’ League in New York City and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, USA and her practice of modernist techniques and themes.
“Her place on the cusp between traditionalists and modernists of Filipino art has served her in good stead,” says Labrador. “Rather than viewing these two styles as contrasting forces, she perceived them as complementary, showing this consistently in her works. This is one of the reasons why she is not so easily categorized by ordinary art historical precepts.”

One of the latest photographs of Magsaysay-Ho. Photo source: kulay-diwa.com
The late artist is also hailed for being so prolific even as she was slowed down by age and ailments. Magsaysay-Ho left behind a prodigious output of drawings as well as paintings using egg tempera, oil on canvas and acrylic.
Her works can be found in institutions like the National Museum, the Ateneo Art Gallery, the UST Museum, the Lopez Museum and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Countless others are part of private collections.
Just like the women she depicted in her works, Magsaysay-Ho made an indelible mark in the field she chose to be part of.
She was the only woman shortlisted by Victorio Edades as among the so-called “13 Moderns” ushered in a new style of art in the Philippines in the 1950s, in stark contrast to the established academic style espoused by Fernando Armorsolo.
The Moderns also included the likes of Carlos “Botong” Francisco, Vicente Manansala, H.R. Ocampo and Cesar Legaspi—all of whom, along with Edades (and Amorsolo) —have been named National Artists.
Ma. Victoria Herrera, officer-in-charge of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Visual Arts and Museum Division, Production and Exhibition Department, singles out Magsaysay-Ho’s determination to pursue an artistic career at a time when the art world then was dominated by men.
“She would be in the same league as the female stalwarts of the post-World War II art world that included Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, Lyd Arguilla, and Nena Saguil,” Herrera points out.
Convocar concurs, “She showed the way that a woman can compete and contribute significantly to the development of Philippine Art. She had one of the most recognizable styles in painting with women as her subjects.”
Says Labrador, “Her distinction as one of the first women artists who held their own against the male-dominated Philippine art world has created a paradigm for many female painters that came after her.”
Sari Ortiga, owner of the Crucible Gallery which has exclusively represented Magsaysay-Ho since the ’90s, comments how the artist was able to establish something distinctively Filipino but with a contemporary touch.
“What’s most special about her work is that she was able to give an identity to the Filipina, but it is still a modern interpretation,” Ortiga says.
As Herrera stresses, Magsaysay-Ho’s stylized rendering of the rural Filipina—with slit eyes and wearing white bandanas—made her works instantly recognizable. “Her many versions of this subject matter gained her the title of the ‘female Amorsolo’ although like the other modernists, working on traditional themes was only a means to explore media and new techniques that the conservative school then did not encourage.
Herrera cites for instance that the artist’s famous work Laughter is painted directly on an unprimed piece of wood. “Also, her decision to take on the old medium of tempera (which she learned during in her studies in the Art Student League, NY), a medium that was not too familiar to other Filipino painters, was in many ways ‘modern’ for that period.”
Convocar notes there will most likely be renewed clamor for the artist’s works now that she has passed away.
There had already been an increased demand for her paintings in the last decade or so brought about by the record-breaking sale of her In the Marketplace in a Christie’s auction of Southeast Asian works in 1999. Depicting her iconic women in a typical market scene seemingly engaged in lively haggling, the 58 x 76 cm work fetched a whopping P15 million.
That sale, describes Ortiga, sent shockwaves not only in the Philippine art scene, but also in the Asian art scene. “It’s the precursor to the success of younger Filipino artists like Ronaldo Ventura and Geraldine Javier in the auctions today.”
But even as the sale made news in 1999, Magsaysay-Ho herself was reportedly baffled as to why In the Marketplace went for such a huge price. Nevertheless, that was followed in succeeding years by other noteworthy sales of other works of hers at various auctions.
Acquiring pieces by Magsaysay-Ho is widely regarded as a good investment since these are expected to increase in value over time.
“But more than that, I think a number of serious collectors recognize her significant role in the history of Philippine painting and would like her to be duly represented, particularly by her early works,” Herrera says. “I think most of Anita’s works that found its way in the auction houses in the past decade are from the 1960s or earlier. Her tempera works are especially highly valued both because these are early works (late 1940s) and that she did a very limited number in this medium.”
Many in the art world have long been calling for Magsaysay-Ho to be declared National Artist. However, she could not be nominated as only Filipino citizens could be considered for the honor. She had become a naturalized Canadian as she and her family lived abroad as part of her husband’s work.
Ortiga said she could have simply opted to reclaim her Filipino citizenship, but that Magsaysay-Ho didn’t bother to do so because she wasn’t interested in the accolade.
According to Labrador, when she interviewed Magsaysay-Ho in 2000, the latter was quite ambivalent about the National Artist award. “Afterwards, I wrote that the dated and insular provision in the law that the awardees must carry a Filipino citizenship made her ineligible to be a National Artist. It is perhaps just another milieu that makes her difficult to categorize. As I wrote then, and which I still believe now, she occupies the niche which she has demonstrated in her body of work, (that) her two worlds—of academic and modernist art-making or even being Filipino and not quite considered as one—can actually create one, even better world.”