Maxene Joi A.

Pigtain 07/22/19
12 – St. Hedwig CPAR

Antipas Delotavo is an Asian Modern & Contemporary painter who was born in 1954. Their
work was featured in exhibitions at the Artinformal, Greenhills. Antipas Delotavo's work has been offered
at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from $1,547 USD to $13,990 USD, depending on
the size and medium of the artwork. Since 2015 the record price for this artist at auction is $13,990 USD
for Untitled, sold at Salcedo Auctions in 2018. In MutualArt’s artist press archive, Antipas Delotavo is
featured in Social Realism: The Turns of a Term in the Philippines, a piece from the Afterall in 2013.

He is a popular Filipino visual artist who has committed his art to revealing some of the harsh
realities experienced by ordinary individuals in Philippine society. Aligned with other social realists who
exposed the dark side of the dictatorship in the 1970s, Biboy continues to produce paintings that enlighten
the public about the impact of poverty, oppression, and injustice in the country.

One of his most famous works featured an old laborer walking in front of a logo of a transnational
company. Some critics describe it as “crucifixion of the proletariat by a harsh capitalist system.”

SOCIAL REALISM AS AN ART STYLE

 Social Realists envisioned themselves to be workers and laborers, similar to those who toiled in
the fields and factories. Often clad in overalls to symbolize unity with the working classes, the
artists believed they were critical members of the whole of society, rather than elites living on the
margins and working for the upper crust.
 While there was a variety of styles and subjects within Social Realism, the artists were united in
their attack on the status quo and social power structure. Despite their stylistic variance, the artists
were realists who focused on the human figure and human condition. Social Realists built on the
legacies of Honore Daumier, Gustave Courbet, and Francisco Goya in their politically charged
and radical social critiques.
 While modernism is most often considered in terms of stylistic innovation, Social Realists
believed that the political content of their work made it modern. Social Realists turned away from
the painterly advancements of the School of Paris.