Abad (Pacita) papers, 1946-2025
Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Pacita Abad papers
- Dates:
- 1946-2025
- Extent:
- 53 Linear Feet (7 cartons, 86 manuscript boxes, 20 flat boxes, 2 card boxes, 1 map folder) and 59 gigabyte(s)
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Pacita Abad papers (M3075). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, California.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Pacita Abad papers contains the working files of the artist, Pacita Abad, created during her lifetime, as well as some documents and publications from the Pacita Abad Art Estate's activities after her death. This includes material relating to exhibitions (including articles, photographs, and flyers); project documentation (including for the Alkaff Bridge); painting images; financial records and painting sales and donations; workshops, talks, and other professional activities; art residencies; personal and professional correspondence; catalogs; published material that used her art images; and artifacts.
The collection also holds born-digital and audiovisual material containing interviews, exhibition footage, documentaries, painting images, and other subjects.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Pacita Barsana Abad (1946-2004) was a Filipino-American artist known for her large-scale, mixed-media trapunto works. She was born in Basco, Batanes to Aurora and Jorge Abad and moved to Manila at the end of her father's first term in Congress. She received a BA in Political Science from the University of the Philippines Diliman, and left the country in 1970 due to the danger of political violence during the Marcos period.
She planned to go to Spain to finish her law degree, but ended up staying in the United States. There, she pursued a degree in Asian history at Lone Mountain College and briefly married painter George Kleiman, who she credited with introducing her to the art world. After meeting and traveling the world with future husband Jack Garrity, Abad decided to dedicate her life to painting. The first time she took related classes was in 1976, at the Corcoran School of Art, and she staged her first exhibition of early paintings at her Washington, DC home and studio in 1977. She attained US citizenship in 1994.
Pacita Abad made her first trapunto painting, AFRICAN MEPHISTO, in 1981. She is arguably remembered most for this signature style of incorporating objects such as stones, sequins, glass, and buttons onto a quilted and painted canvas. She opened her first major solo show, Pacita Abad: A Philippine Painter Looks at the World, in 1984.
She was one of the first artists selected for a residency at Singapore Tyler Print Institute, where she created Circles In My Mind. Abad then proceeded directly into painting the Alkaff Bridge, now also known as the Singapore ArtBridge.
Her career took her to locations throughout the world, and she spent time in Washington, DC, Dhaka, Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, Singapore, and others. These travels gave her an appreciation of a multitude of different cultures and artistic styles, especially traditional textiles, which she would incorporate into her own work.
She was the first female recipient of the TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men) Award for Art in the Philippines in 1984.
She died in 2004 of cancer.
She built Fundacion Pacita in Batanes to be her vacation home, studio, and gallery. It was gifted by the Pacita Abad Art Estate to her siblings after her death, and is now a lodging house and restaurant managed by the Jorge, Aurora and Pacita Abad Memorial Foundation.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of the Pacita Abad Art Estate, 2025.
- Physical location:
- Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged three business days in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: https://library.stanford.edu/libraries/special-collections.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-10-27 13:16:07 -0700 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research use. Material must be paged at least 3 business days in advance of intended use.
Audiovisual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy. Born-digital materials are closed until processed.
- Terms of access:
-
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Pacita Abad papers (M3075). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, California.
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022