In 1933, Purita Kalaw-Ledesma visited Europe for the first time. She was able to visit the Louvre Museum in Paris and view the original works of art that she had only seen in art books. At that moment, she realized that nothing compared to the experience of being able to view the original artworks. Eventually becoming an art patron and collector, Purita Kalaw-Ledesma was profoundly inspired by this encounter. She envisioned her art collection to be viewed and enjoyed by the public in hopes of evoking the same strong emotions that she had felt.
Her involvement with the local art scene as founding president of the Art Association of the Philippines in 1948 allowed her to closely witness and document key moments of Philippine art history. She acquired works of art in a period where very few were collecting and gathered an archive alongside Purita Kalaw-Ledesma’s legacy to the Kalaw-Ledesma Foundation is an impressive collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, mixed media works as well as pre-Hispanic pottery that she gathered throughout her career. Most of the works are by prominent artists in Philippine visual art, including their early works as prizewinners of various contests held by the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP). Additionally, a number of the works were gifts from the artists themselves to Purita, and many of these pieces are portraits of the patroness herself.
The collection boasts pieces by many National Artists, such as Arturo Luz, Cesar Legaspi, H.R. Ocampo, Victorio Edades, Ben “BenCab” Cabrera, Ang Kiukok, Abdulmari Asia Imao, Carlos “Botong” Francisco, Fernando Amorsolo, and Napoleon Abueva. Other significant pieces in the collection are prints by pioneering printmaker Manuel Rodriguez, Sr. There are also posters from the 1960s to the 1980s, which tracked exhibition openings in art institutions and organizations in Manila. Three-dimensional work such as traditional Filipino pottery, wooden Santo, and sculptures are part of the collection’s roster as well. The collection also includes works by Purita Kalaw-Ledesma herself: sketches from her travels, studies from nude drawing sessions, and prints.
Purita Kalaw-Ledesma’s art and archival collection is a significant resource on Philippine art. The Foundation has loaned its artworks to other prestigious institutions and is in the process of launching a PKL Center Venue Grant to invite curators to engage with the collection. In recent years, aside from the PKL Center, the works in the collection have been exhibited locally at the Ayala Museum, Lopez Museum, University of the Philippines Vargas Museum; and internationally, most notably in the National Gallery of Singapore and in Casa Asia in Spain.
