TABUENA, ROMEO (1921-2015)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
"El Arbol (Firetree)" (1969)
oil on canvas
50 x 95cm
signed lower right
*purchased from artist's studio, Mexico
*Rhonda Grogan Collection
*private collection, Sydney
 
Romeo Villalva Tabuena was a famous Filipino Painter & Printmaker. He studied architecture at the Mapúa Institute of Technology in Manila and painting at the University of the Philippines. He also studied at the Art Students League of New York and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. In 1955, he settled in Mexico where he lived with his Norwegian wife Nina, but retained his Philippine citizenship. He painted the mural Filipiniana in the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. In 1965, he participated in the Eighth São Paulo Art Biennial as the official Filipino artist & as the art commissioner from the Philippines. The Honolulu Museum of Art holds his painting Carabao, which is typical of the artist's animal paintings. Tabuena is listed in Who's Who in American Art, International Who's Who in Art, and International Who's Who of Intellectuals. He also appears on History of International Art-Italy, History of Contemporary Art-Italy, & on the International Book of Honor, America's Biographic Institute. He is included in 5000 Personalities of the World, Cambridge, England. His major works include: Art Expo in New York City; One-man show in Gallerie Bleue in Manila, Philippines one-man show at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City; participation in the VII Biennial São Paulo as the official Filipino artist & art commissioner from the Philippines, & in Galeria Tere Haas in Mexico City; Institute of Fine Arts in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; & 10-year Retrospective Show at the Philippine Art Gallery with Publishing of Illustrative Monographs appraising his work of that period.
 
This work was originally purchased directly from the artist's studio in Mexico by noted film production secretary, Rhonda Grogan!!