Three Women with basket by Anita Magsaysay Ho
Anita Magsaysay-Ho was a Filipina painter who specialized in Social Realism and post-Cubism in regard to women in Filipino culture. Magsaysay-Ho’s work appeals to Modernism by utilizing more abstract designs and styles rather than realistic approaches.
Born on 25 May 1914 in Manila, Anita Magsaysay-Ho is considered as one of the country’s pioneering modernists. She was the only woman in the “Thirteen Moderns,” a group of artists that challenged conservatism in Philippine art in the mid-20th century.
She studied at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts under the tutelage of Fabian de la Rosa and Fernando Amorsolo, and later at the Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, USA, where she mastered the technique of using egg tempera in her works.
Much or Magsaysay-Ho’s works were inspired by her rural upbringing in Zambales, usually depicting women engaging in agricultural tasks. She was the recipient of multiple
awards, including prizes from the 1950 Manila Grand Opera House Exhibition, Graphic Arts in 1952, and the Art Association of the Philippines, among others.Magsaysay-Ho passed away in Manila on 5 May 2012.
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