Francisco "Paco" Gorospe Sy (July 10, 1939 – September 22, 2002) was a
Filipino
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
painter, called the "Picasso of the Philippines".
Paco Gorospe is one of the famous painters of the Philippines. He was born in
Binondo,
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
. He was inspired by the simple and colourful lifestyle of native tribes from the south of the country such as the Yakans, the Bogobos and the Tausugs.
He joined a local group of artists in Ermita, Manila, and sold his paintings locally, gradually gaining recognition. Paco started with crayons, later using water colours but finally shifted to oil paintings. His paintings caught the eye of Lydia Arguilla, founder of the Philippine Art Gallery (PAG), who displayed his work at PAG and included over 40 of his paintings in her personal collection.
Gorospe's first major exhibition, due largely to Lydia Arguilla's patronage, took place in 1962 at the World's Fair in Seattle, Washington. Following his stint at the "Century 21" World's Fair in Seattle, US sales increased, and in 1964 his works were chosen to represent the Philippines at the World's Fair in New York.
Other foreign exhibitions followed including Okinawa, Japan (1972), Baden-Baden, Germany (1989), Switzerland and Denmark.
In 1990, his work ''Sabungeros'' ("
cockfighting
A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ente ...
") was chosen by
Philippine Airlines
Philippine Airlines (PAL), a trade name of PAL Holdings, Inc. (Philippine Stock Exchange, PSEPAL (Philippine Air Lines until 1970), is the flag carrier airline of the Philippines. Headquartered at the Philippine National Bank, PNB Financial Cen ...
for the cover of their playing cards given to passengers.
References
1939 births
2002 deaths
People from Binondo
Artists from Metro Manila
20th-century Filipino painters
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