Untitled (Abstract) signed and dated 1982 (lower right) oil on canvas 13 1/4” x 15 3/4” (33 cm x 39 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Mr. Christian Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot
PROPERTY FROM THE LORNA REVILLA MONTILLA COLLECTION Untitled signed and dated 1967 and inscribed Manila (lower left) ink on fabric 17 1/2" x 16 1/2" (44 cm x 42 cm)
a.) Nude signed and dated 1963 (lower left) charcoal on paper 18 1/2” x 25” (47 cm x 64 cm) b.) Nude signed and dated 1965 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 18” x 18 1/2” (46 cm x 47 cm) Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s series of nude portraits illustrates the artist’s versatility of styles. Just as renowned for his figurations as for his abstractions, Aguilar Alcuaz’s Nude (done in 1963 and 1965, respectively) highlights the artist’s knowledge of human anatomy. Even through the simplest of lines, Aguilar-Alcuaz’s talent for storytelling is highly evident as every curve and shade used to contribute to the portrait’s overall appeal. Devoid of his usual canvases possessed by horror vacui, his portraits shine with natural talent as he creates each piece with purposeful intent, every bit of the fascinating artist he is known to be. (Hannah Valiente)
Untitled (Obverse) mixed media on paper 13 1/4” x 18 1/2” (34 cm x 47 cm) Untitled (Reverse) signed and dated 1965 (upper right) mixed media on paper 13 1/4” x 18 1/2” (34 cm x 47 cm) Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Aguilar Alcuaz Twin Abstractions The abstractions of Federico Aguilar-Alcuaz exist between the borders of reality and surrealism. A highly esteemed abstract artist, as critic Alice Guillermo described him in 2007, his works reveal his hedonistic approach to life, nature, and the world. He depicts the world he observes with immense pleasure, his overflowing love for art pure and genuine. He adds his distinct palette of colors as he creates a wholly unique experience for the viewer. With these two mixed media pieces, Aguilar-Alcuaz shows his aptitude for multiple art mediums. His mastery of the abstract is evident — his usage of striking blacks and contrasting reds and greens creates an arresting image. It is the true appeal of Aguilar-Alcuaz; his enduring fascination for the art makes his oeuvre perpetual and abiding for generations to come. (Hannah Valiente)
Portrait of the Neo-Realist Victor Oteyza signed and dated 1948 (lower right) oil on wood 28” x 17” (71 cm x 43 cm) Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Literature: Hufana, Alejandrino G., ed. Pamana 13 June 1974: A Cultural Quarterly Published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1974. Listed on page 15 as “62. PORTRAIT OF VIC OTEYZA” under the artist’s list of paintings. Tiongson, Nicanor G., ed. Artista ng Bayan 1991. Cultural Center of the Philippines. Manila. 1991. Listed on page 32 as “62. Portrait of Vic Oteyza” under HR Ocampo’s “List of Paintings (Partial)”. HR Ocampo Paints a Pillar of Modernism The Genius behind the Plastic Engineering Series Hernando R. Ocampo and Victor Oteyza both saw the crashing of the relentless tides of modernism. But how did these two meet and forge a friendship? The answer lies in other seminal figures in Filipino modernism, who were all inextricably bonded to their zealous endeavor of liberating Philippine painting. Before the war, Ocampo worked as the assistant editor of the mid-week magazine of the Philippines Herald. He counted among his colleagues now venerable names in Philippine history: Carlos P. Romulo (editor), Salvador P. Lopez (columnist), and Vicente Manansala, who had jumped to the art department of the Philippines Herald after working as a painter of billboards for the Philippine Advertising Company. On Saturdays, when people were off work, Cesar Legaspi would join Ocampo and Manansala. Legaspi then worked for Elizalde and Company as one of its advertising artists. “It was during these sessions that the young Manansala and Legaspi would hear, for the first time, about the wonders of Modern art,” wrote Purita Kalaw-Ledesma in the book The Biggest Little Room. H.R. Ocampo, being the literary and the intellectual one, talked of modernist theories and concepts in these conversations (He was a founding member of the Veronicans, progressive writers in the 1930s that also counted Francisco Arcellana, Angel G. de Jesus, and N.V.M Gonzales in its roster. The group wrote short stories and other literary pieces that were described by de Jesus, who would become Ocampo’s biographer, as representing “a break with tradition, an absence of bourgeois-moralistic taboos, and a realistic approach to life.”). Legaspi first met Oteyza around 1937, when Galo Ocampo requested the former to design the set and costumes for “Pygmalion and Galatea,” which Oteyza directed. “Cesar met Oteyza, and from this acquaintance, a deep friendship developed,” noted Kalaw-Ledesma. “Although Cesar lived at 821 Gelinos Street in Sampaloc, he would join Oteyza, who lived near the U.P. campus at Padre Faura Street. At night, they would meet and walk around discussing art and life. These discussions stimulated Oteyza and encouraged him to become a painter.” Through a common friend that was Legaspi, H.R. Ocampo and Victor Oteyza became acquainted. Kalaw-Ledesma recounted the pre-war Sunday luncheons when Galo Ocampo, H.R. Ocampo, Manansala, Demetrio Diego, and other artists (which reasonably included Oteyza) frequented Legaspi’s house and indulged in the savory Spanish cuisine meals that his father prepared and cooked. “Inevitably, the discussions would center on art,” said Kalaw-Ledesma. Another anecdote to H.R. Ocampo and Oteyza’s bond can be found in Angel G. de Jesus’ book on the former, writing that “as early as 1939, Nanding [and] Enteng held a joint exhibition at the UP Library where they were able to sell only two paintings,” one for each artist. De Jesus continued, “Their group was later joined by Legaspi and then by Ramon A. Estella, Victor Oteyza, Romeo V, Tabuena, and Arturo R. Luz. They visited each other’s studios, talked about each other’s paintings, and learned about their mistakes and faults. In that way, they improved their art and technique on the basis of what they learned from each other.” When liberation came for the war-torn Philippines, these artists reunited for their beloved Sunday get-togethers, now hopping from one artist’s house to another every weekend “to show what each had painted during the week and to comment on each other’s works” as Kalaw-Ledesma put it. “…As always, they could only paint after office hours or on holidays. This limited their production to three or, at most, twelve paintings a year.” The bond formed by H.R. Ocampo and Oteyza is encapsulated in this Portrait of Victor Oteyza. Painted by Ocampo in 1948, the work echoes sentiments of his “Proletarian Period” of 1934 to 1945, in which he depicted faceless figures as symbolic of the Filipino struggle against colonialism and, in turn, the destructive war. However, Ocampo’s portrait of his dear friend depicts the Filipino artists’ struggle towards artistic liberation, shattering tradition, embracing innovation, and finding a unique identity. This zeal would be materialized with the rise of Neo-Realism in the early ‘50s. This group counted among its members Ocampo and Oteyza and banded in the name of artistic revolution: a subversion against the deeply rooted supremacy and conservatism of the Amorsolo school of painting. They wanted to depict the destruction brought by the war and the trauma it had inflicted on the Filipino soul as it unfolded before their very eyes. In line with the Neo-Realist spirit, as articulated by the words of Francesco de Sanctis (to create reality, an artist must first destroy it, and its fragments would come together again to breathe new life among each other), Oteyza painted his Plastic Engineering Series (Oteyza himself was a professional engineer). The works are composed of stark linear forms arranged in a frenzied manner, emphasizing the plastic elements of painting. At the same time, it mirrors the turbulent, almost anarchic condition of Manila in the immediate aftermath of the war, as encapsulated by the ruined landscape and the cramped barong-barongs scattered all over the city. Kalaw-Ledesma wrote, “Oteyza was the closest [to adhere] to the De Santis philosophy.” The post-war Modernists also found themselves in great luck as the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) would be founded in 1948, the same year Ocampo painted the work at hand. The AAP would be headed by Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, matriarch and vanguard of modernism. It would hold annual exhibitions and competitions, and modernists and conservatives were all invited to join. But the tides would always turn in favor of the moderns, who, even in the first AAP competition in 1948, had swept all the major awards, from the 1st Prize won by Botong Francisco for Kaingin up to the 6th Prize won by H.R. Ocampo for Nude with Candle and Flower. Ocampo and Oteyza were peers (and rivals) in these lively competitions. In particular, Oteyza would bag several honors: the 5th Prize for his work Perfect State at the 1949 Annual and an “Honorable Mention” for The Crucible at the 1950 Annual. But it was his entry to the inaugural AAP annual, the first painting of his iconic “Plastic Engineering Series,” that would be dubbed years later by Magtanggul Asa in the booklet for the landmark “First Exhibition of Non-Objective Art in Tagala” in December 1953, as bagging “the distinction of the first non-objective piece entered in the competition,” a heralding of what’s to come in the fate of Philippine Modernism. Asa also honored Ocampo and Oteyza as the “major exponents” of non-objective art. (Adrian Maranan)
Property from the Tetta Agustin collection Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (1932 - 2011) Untitled (Tres Marias Series) signed and dated 1982 (upper right) oil on canvas 25" x 31" (64 cm x 79 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s Tres Marias series is among his most famous, a series that critic Alice Guillermo described in 2007 as a genre of “beautiful, long-gowned women with a 19th-century air engaged in a variety of domestic activities.” “The Tres Marias series was painted between 1978 and 1979,” adds Aguilar Alcuaz’s older brother Mariano “Ovit” Aguilar Jr. in Rod Paras-Perez’s Parallel Texts. “The subjects were waitresses at Cafe Coquilla, Rotisserie and the Chinese restaurant in the Manila Hilton, where he is staying. The paintings were done during the free hours or breaks of these waitresses.” In this particular Tres Maria, Aguilar Alcuaz eschews the long Spanish gowns for a traditional Filipino one. His women are clad in a Maria Clara style of Filipiniana, complete with the massive shawl that covers their shoulders and their arms. Two of the three women stood gossiping while the remaining one sat with her hands folded on her lap. It is evident from their clothes and their surroundings that these women belong to the upper class, thus provided with a modicum of privacy. “The [Tres Marias] paintings could invoke by themselves [various] anecdotes,” Alcuaz writes about a different Tres Marias painting in a December 22, 1981 journal. Indeed, this phrase could be used in many other Tres Marias paintings, including this one. His Tres Marias provide a tableau of the inner workings of the lives often not depicted elsewhere. These women – mothers, daughters, wives, sisters – briefly drop their societal titles and exist as is, creating a world that for a moment is only theirs. In Alcuaz’s many iterations of the Marias, he has told a myriad of stories that open themselves up to multiple interpretations. They are, in a way, ever-evolving and ever-growing, allowing the viewers to connect to them in a personal way. (Hannah Valiente)
Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (1932 - 2011) a.) Untitled (Composition) signed and dated 1978 (center) oil on canvas 6 1/4" x 9 3/4" (17 cm x 26 cm) b.) Untitled (Composition) signed and dated 1978 (lower center) oil on canvas 5 1/2" x 8 1/4" (15 cm x 23 cm) c.) Untitled (Composition, Stilllife) signed and dated 1978 (lower center) oil on canvas 6 1/4" x 9 1/4" (17 cm x 25 cm) d.) Untitled (Composition) signed and dated 1978 (lower right) oil on canvas 6 1/4" x 9 3/4" (17 cm x 26 cm) Each piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Christian M. Aguilar confirming the authenticity of this lot In the mid-1950s, a new chapter in Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s artistic career began when Fernando Zobel, the avant-garde Filipino artist, saw potential in the young Aguilar Alcuaz and recommended him for a Spanish beca. So in 1955, he followed the footsteps of Juan Luna and Fernando Amorsolo and left for Madrid where he studied at the prestigious Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando under a scholarship. At Academia de San Fernando, Aguilar Alcuaz was exposed not just to discipline, training, exposure, and the basic grammar of art – what Aguilar Alcuaz referred to as the ABCs of art – but to an ample amount of inspiration from one of the most bustling and art-infused cities in the worked. For nine years from 1955 to 1964, Spain, specifically Barcelona, became Aguilar Alcuaz’s home base where he worked and maintained a studio on the fourth floor of 285 Aragon St. He had to return to Manila in 1964 after a near-fatal accident; however, he continued to maintain his Barcelona for the next four decades. Throughout his life, he continued his travels worldwide, visiting Czechoslovakia from 1968 to the early 1980s for his tapestries. He also started his “Tres Marias” series near the end of the 1970s. These still-life pieces created around the same time as his Tres Marias series echoed Aguilar Alcuaz’s Spanish inspirations. Here, he notably departs from the influences of the prevalent Spanish Baroque and instead veers into a world with a tinge of Fauvist sensibilities. His avant-garde leanings show through strong color qualities; Fauvism as a movement only lasted less than five years but still, its style and impact continued for years to come. These works also entail the portability that Aguilar Alcuaztends to veer into especially when he does concert-painting. Portable both physically and conceptually, these works manage to compress the entirety of Alcuaz’s encompassing talent and post-war angst. “Aguilar Alcuaz’s career path is definitely post WWII, inevitably touched by the continental angst of the existentialists and at the same time by the exuberance of New York’s Action Painting,” Dr. Rod Paras-Perez in Parallel Text: Federico Aguilar Alcuaz. “Alcuaz paints like a fencer and is more than burdened by a sense of unrelieved angst,” he continues. “Like de Kooning and Pollock, [he] readily accepts the role of the unconscious in the painting process.” (Hannah Valiente)
Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (1932 - 2011) Untitled (Tres Marias Series) signed and dated 1985 (lower right) oil on canvas 29" x 35" (74 cm x 89 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz started one of his famous series Tres Marias. Often a triad of beautiful, long-gowned women, Aguilar Alcuaz’s Tres Marias are the very image of feminine domestic bliss as they lounge in their private quarters where they can finally shed the heavy societal gaze and just be themselves. Oftentimes they are alone but sometimes, a lone child could be seen relaxing with them or a man watching from the outside. This 1985 work echoes Aguilar Alcuaz’s Tres Marias with five women lounging on a sofa. In comparison to other Tres Marias work, this one is a bit more compressed together as they sit with their knees and elbows knocking into each other. Another point of difference too is the state of the clothes – while the usual Spanish gowns are still used, several women wore Japanese kimonos and Chinese cheongsams, effectively opening Aguilar Alcuaz’s works internationally. At their feet kneels another woman dressed in a simpler cheongsam as she cleans the floor. Aguilar Alcuaz’s Tres Marias often alludes to the women’s implicit trust for each other through their relaxed body posture. Here, he made that physical through their proximity – though they sit closed off and wary (perhaps due to an outsider’s presence), their bond is undeniable. “I am only doing what I believe in,” Aguilar Alcuaz was quoted in 1977. “I am sure that nobody would say that I am living in a romantic age. I am a romantic man living in a modern age.” Indeed, as seen in this work (and his Tres Marias series), he is at his most romantic when he depicts women as he manages to blend in their demure outward nature and vibrant inner life. (Hannah Valiente)
Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (1932 - 2011) Untitled (Manila Bay Series) signed and dated 1972 (lower right) oil on canvas 16" x 20" (41 cm x 51 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot The 1970s found Federico Aguilar Alcuaz seized with a frantic desire to paint the Manila landscapes. This decade-long journey to capture Manila culminated in 1977 when Portrait of Manila was finally exhibited with a total of 150 paintings done within four months. This series rendered the city in an “inscaped cycloramic point of view,” as a 2018 NCCA exhibition catalog described it, the cityscapes transformed by Alcuaz’s impressionistic brush strokes. Done in that fateful decade, this 1972 Untitled (Manila Bay Series) depicts a Manila Bay virtually unrecognizable today. With the waters stretching out as far as the eye can see, modern-day viewers can see how Manila Bay used to be – serene, silent, and in peace. Coconut trees line its shores and in the distance, ships and boats are waiting to be docked as the Manila Bay used to be (and still is) a major port located at the country’s capital. Untitled (Manila Bay Series), like many of Aguilar Alcuaz’s 1970s landscapes, is a love letter to the Philippines. A wanderlust artist, Aguilar Alcuazz never forgets his origin and he lovingly depicts the places he had grown up in for his viewers around the world. (Hannah Valiente)
Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (1932 - 2011) View of Luneta signed and dated 1981 (lower left) oil on canvas 40" x 60" (102 cm x 152 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Christian M. Aguilar confirming the authenticity of this lot Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist. Private collection, Manila. Manila Bay in the Morning Quirino Grandstand, Burnham Green and Manila Hotel The 1970s had been a fruitful year for Federico Aguilar Alcuaz in terms of landscape paintings. Her had previously been seized with a desire to depict the beauty of Manila, a desire most likely prompted by the fact that his frequent sojourns abroad meant he would be seeing his home country less and less. This reached its climax when in 1977, his Portrait of Manila was finally exhibited with a total of 150 paintings done within four months. This series rendered the city in an “inscaped cycloramic point of view,” as a 2018 NCCA exhibition catalog described it, the cityscapes transformed by Alcuaz’s impressionistic brush strokes. View of Luneta, created just four years after Portrait of Manila, encapsulates the bird-eye of of the public park. The park was a historic place in Philippine history – adjacent to the walled city of Intramuros, Luneta was famed for being Jose Rizal’s execution site. Nowadays, Luneta Park is a place of recreation, a reprieve for nature in the middle of the urbanized jungle that is Manila. Though created after Aguilar Alcuaz’s historic 1970s landscape, it still carried its central tenet – it is a love letter to the capital of the Philippines, its historic areas flourishing side-by-side with its modern. Alcuaz, a wanderlust artist, depicts his hometown with fervor and longing, intertwining its history with its rapidly urbanizing city. (Hannah Valiente)
Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (1932 - 2011) Estudio Cubista signed and dated 1980 (lower right) oil on wood 13" x 9 1/2" (33 cm x 24 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot Provenance Promocioness de Arte Santander Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s Estudio Cubista ranks among the artist’s impeccable abstractions. An artist adept with both abstraction and figuration, Alcuaz’s works always seem to include both styles as once – in Estudio Cubista, his abstractions carry an essence of his figuration, with Dr. Rod Paras-Perez stating that his virtuosity allowed him to shift between styles simultaneously. His interlocking shapes and amorphous forms create a sense of stability in his abstractions, making an illusory geography that is both surreal and somber. “Alcuaz is …a unique rebel – a rebel with a sense of moderation, a rebel longing for the stars but with his feet rooted on tradition,” Paras-Perez writes in Parallel Text: Federico Aguilar Alcuaz. Indeed, Alcuaz’s abstractions provide a breath of fresh air as he contends with both the traditional and the modern, resulting in a work that is as timely as it is timeless. (Hannah Valiente)
Untitled signed and dated 1979 (lower left) mixed media on paper 19 3/4” x 14 1/2” (50 cm x 37 cm) Leon Gallery wishes to thank Mr. Christian Aguilar Alcuaz for confirming the authenticity of this lot
PROPERTY FROM THE DON VICENTE “TIKING” H. LOPEZ, JR. COLLECTION Untitled signed and dated 1964 (upper right) mixed media on board 18 1/2" x 25" (47 cm x 64 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot In another life, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz might have continued down this path as throughout the years, he had been offered scholarships for his cello playing. In this universe, however, this sense of music is conveyed in his abstractions which contain rhythmic crescendos and calming pianissimos that bring its viewers into the highs and lows of a good musical piece. It was with this musical sensitivity that Alcuaz approached this 1967 abstraction. His ability to shift seamlessly from figurative to abstraction rendered him capable of creating truly unique abstract pieces that merge the muddy waters between these two thoughts. With a fervor that could only belong to an artist, his abstract symphonic pieces are grounded in the fundamental art principles and yet refreshing in their novel composition, a study of contrast that this virtuoso himself embodies in his everyday life. This work’s dark earthy palette echoes the tough forest ground, the tail end of autumn leaving dark leaves along their roots, evoking a nostalgic image as though a physical manifestation of closing a chapter in one’s life. Alcuaz’s mystifying poetic lyricism establishes itself in this work. Through his usage of colors and composition, he is able to evoke an emotional intensity that transcends figuration and abstraction. Urged forward by an innate melodious spirit, Alcuaz’s spontaneity opens the gates for emotional scrutiny, a sense that emphasizes the musical and the metaphysical just as much as the physical world. (Hannah Valiente)
Untitled (Idealized View/Landscape) signed and dated 1973 (lower left) oil on canvas 18” x 24” (46 cm x 61 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Christian M. Aguilar confirming the authenticity of this lot 1973 found contemporary artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz roaming the streets of Europe. With exhibitions in the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, among others, Aguilar Alcuaz’s European (specifically Spanish) inspiration blossomed in that period, with that inspiration evident in his 1972 House View. In loose, flowy brush strokes, Aguilar Alcuaz portrays the view outside the window of a house that overlooks the city. The sky and the seas merge on the horizon, with the little houses dotting the roads to and from the town. “[His] Spanish landscapes and cityscapes are neither runof-the-mill pastoral scenes imbued with ethical profundity nor based from real-life settings,” his monograph from Crownplas Museum states, “but culled from memory and emotion for a particular city and environs.” Indeed, House View, more than anything, evokes a quiet sense of nostalgia, a comfort that a morning spent in a childhood home brings. (Hannah Valiente)
Untitled (Tres Marias Series) signed and dated 1984 (upper left) oil on canvas 26” x 32” (66 cm x 81 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Christian M. Aguilar confirming the authenticity of this lot Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s Tres Marias series is among his most enduring body of works. Playfully depicting a triad of women huddled together as they converse silently and privately, the series was born out of his observation of the waitresses in the restaurants he frequents. From that humble beginnings started a series of paintings depicting these tres marias in their elaborate Spanish-style gowns lounging in their private rooms. However, in this 1984 Tres Marias, Aguilar Alcuaz leaves his women (and the rest of the room they lounge in) a fresh new light, only coloring in the figures in broad, light strokes. This decidedly spare and modern air emphasizes a quality only hinted at in the rest of the Tres Marias series – the viewer is drawn like an unseen admirer into a quiet moment of beauty. Indeed Tres Marias is a refreshingly contemporary approach to a beloved theme. (Hannah Valiente)
Mother and Child signed and dated 1981 (upper left) oil on canvas 30" x 24" (76 cm x 61 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot One of the most beloved subjects in human portraiture is the ever-enduring image of the mother and child, springing up in religious art and even beyond. For centuries, ceramics, stone, canvas, and sculptures bore the image of these people emphasizing the great importance with which motherhood was held throughout history. Federico Aguilar Alcuaz was among the artists who tried his hand at this well-loved topic. With his flowy brush strokes and his indignant refusal to conform to the planes Daybreak Feast, with its large, kaleidoscopic brush strokes and impastos in arbitrary shapes and places, truly embodies the traits of an authentic Joya piece. Bursting with life, this orange-dominated oil painting, with hints of neutral colors, elicits a feeling of warm embrace against the cold breeze of the break of dawn. His vibrant palette brings forth an energetic and cheerful vibe, enough to boost you up through the day. Joya’s strokes and colors, far from being random, are a deliberate expression of his feelings—his way of connecting to the world around him, creating a depth of artistic expression. (Jessica Magno) of reality, he depicts a long-haired, light-skinned woman with her back perched on her lap. Like the women in his Tres Marias series, these women are dressed elaborately, their dresses belying their high status despite their apparent simplicity. His take on the mother and child theme takes a turn for the modern and yet it still retains that unbreakable bond of motherhood that transcends through time, a love that rose and fell and persisted despite all in this unending world. (Hannah Valiente)
Untitled (Seascape) ca. 1970s oil on canvas 17 1/2" x 13 1/2" (44 cm x 34 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Christian M. Aguilar con firming the authenticity of this lot
PROPERTY FROM THE JESUS AND MARITESS PINEDA COLLECTION Untitled (Abstract) signed and dated 1976 (upper left) oil on canvas 20" x 16" (51 cm x 41 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot WRITE UP Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s abstractions toe the line between figuration and delineation. Belonging to the exceptional classification of artists who excel in various mediums and forms, Alcuaz painted abstractions and figurations, made ceramics and tapestries, sculptured and created small works of art from paper scraps, among others. With such a level of mastery in the arts, the logical next step for him was to blur the lines between mediums and genres, creating for himself an intimately personal oeuvre. Such is the case with this 1976 Untitled (Abstract). Alcuaz’s virtuosity made it possible for him to seamlessly shift from one medium to another or to combine the seemingly disparate elements of two different genres. With his abstractions, Alcuaz plays around with the pictorial planes, creating an image of an almost figuration. One could see the flowers Alcuaz placed in the midst of the abstraction but nothing more and nothing less. Bearing the mark of his playful personality, his abstractions play around with their shapes and forms, utilizing deliberate delineation of colors and sharp outlines to create a surreal image of harmony and chaos. “Alcuaz aimed for the unintentional to fabricate his abstractions,” Alcuaz’s monograph Alcuaz: Navigating the Spanish Soul writes, “and in the process created an illusory geography, frighteningly surreal due to its somber and isolated atmosphere despite the cool and calm colors.” (Hannah Valiente)
Untitled signed and dated 1949 (upper left) watercolor on paper 17" x 12" (43 cm x 30 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Christian M. Aguilar confirming the authenticity of this lot WRITE UP By 1949, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz was juggling the difficult roles of both being a student of Law at San Beda University and a painting student at UP School of Fine Arts, a compromise for his father who believed that Alcuaz would have difficulties in finances should he remain as a mere painter. However, his fear was assuaged when Alcuaz, even as a student, earned enough money only through his drawings and paintings. This abstraction, done in the same year, features the type of distortion Alcuaz would improve in his later years. Toeing the line between abstraction and figuration, he plays around planes and shapes, utilizing deliberate splotches of colors to create a surreal image of harmony and chaos. (Hannah Valiente)
Abstract signed and dated 1971 (lower right) and inscribed N.Y watercolor and pastel on paper 12" x 18" (30 cm x 46 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Mr. Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot
Nude Series signed and dated 1969 (lower left) watercolor on paper 13 1/2" x 9 1/2" (34 cm x 24 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Mr. Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot
Untitled signed and dated 1966 (lower left) ink and watercolor on paper 37" x 17 3/4" (93 cm x 45 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Mr. Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot
Abstract signed and dated 1974 (lower left) watercolor on paper 34" x 17 1/4" (86 cm x 44 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Mr. Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot
Self Portrait signed and dated 1973 (lower right) pen and ink on paper 8” x 5 1/4” (20 cm x 13 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Mr. Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF A VERY DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN Blues in the Night dated 1972 tapestry No 11008 56" x 74" (143 cm x 187 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot EXHIBITED: Galerie De Zonnewijzer, Philips Ontspannings Centrum, Aguilar Alcuaz (One-Man Exhibition of Tapestries), Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 11 January - 11 February 1973 LITERATURE: Aguilar Alcuaz: One-Man Exhibition of Tapestries (Exhibition Catalog). Eindhoven: Philips Ontspannings Centrum, 1973. Published on the occasion of Federico Aguilar-Alcuaz's Solo Exhibition of Tapestries at the Galerie De Zonnewijzer in 1973. Listed as "37. Blauw in de nacht" in the catalog insert specifying the artist's price list of the tapestries exhibited. Weaving Music Into Art Alcuaz’s Tapestry of Harmony Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s tapestries are abstractions of a high and avant-garde order. In 1968, Alcuaz ventured into the art of tapestries, stimulated by his sojourn to Brno in the former Czechoslovakia. The city was the headquarters of the Wool Research Institute, where in the late 1950s, three Czech textile engineers—František Pohl, Václav Skála, and Jiří Haluza—pioneered the Protis technology, which enabled woolen, loose fabric to be transformed into a joined two-layer, non-woven textile. The innovation would further spill into the arts, giving rise to Art Protis, first fostered by prominent Czech textile artist Antonín Kybal. Art Protis would soon find itself in every corner possible, from hotels to residential interiors to public spaces. Says his wife, Ute, in the side notes of the artist’s chronology published in Alcuaz’s monograph written by Rod. Paras- Perez: “Fred was in Brno...beginning in 1968. This was during the Prague Spring Revolution—Art Protis. Fred went to Brno to make tapestries until the early 1980s. He was always making sure he had enough dollars, the only currency the factory accepted as payment for the finished tapestries. Fred enjoyed...engaging in the creative process of composing the tapestries. The people...adored him. Even the mayor would frequent the tapestry factory to visit him whenever he was in town.” Alcuaz became enamored with this unique innovation and began incorporating it as his own. Alcuaz’s tapestry-making process is one of self-expression and self-dependence. "[Alcuaz does] away with preliminary sketches or designs," writes Rosalinda Orosa in the 16 July 1971 issue of The Manila Chronicle. "He came upon his technique all by himself…The advantage of Alcuaz’s tapestry is that for the first time, the artist is directly and totally involved in it—he needs no one’s help." Using unwoven wool dyed in varying colors, he dismisses paint as a medium, cuts the textile into pieces, and skillfully heaps and interweaves them like a collage. After threading the work, he brings it to Art Protis in Brno, where Alcuaz uses their massive machines to press the tapestry into finality. Alcuaz would first debut his tapestries at a solo exhibition at the Luz Gallery in February 1969. In the 20 July 1972 issue of the Manila Chronicle, art critic Alfredo Roces notes that Alcuaz’s tapestries were high in demand in Spain that the artist could not keep up. Whereas in his own country, the collectors were yet to keep up and discover this genius by the artist. Eventually, Alcuaz would single handedly bring the art of the tapestry into a rousing c o m m e r c i a l success in the Philippines. The work at hand, titled Blues in the Night, was showcased at a much- p r a i s e d 1973 exhibition of Alcuaz’s tapestries at Netherland’s iconic Philips Ontspannings Centrum. The tapestry still bears the original label imprinted at its back, indicating that the work was completed in the Art Protis factory in Brno. “Alcuaz was the first—so far, the only one—who, from a purely plastic point of view, undertakes the complete execution of the tapestry without assistance or intermediaries,” writes L. Muñoz Viñaras, a prominent member of the Spanish Association of Art Critics, in his commentary on the exhibition. Blues in the Night is characterized by intersecting textiles that are dynamically rendered and collectively transformed into lines of varying degrees of sinuousness, like a river’s pristine waters delicately meandering through a lush forest. Alcuaz weaves his love for music into this work, as evident in its title referencing the popular music genre. Was Alcuaz listening to blues music while making this tapestry? Akin to a blues composition, Alcuaz uses somber colors to evoke emotional intensity and expressiveness rather than depict a physical subject. In doing so, Alcuaz highlights a kind of mystifying poetic lyricism that only reveals itself to the artist. With the work’s slick instinctiveness, Alcuaz establishes a connection between his inner being and his art. Alcuaz’s appropriation of the qualities of music through a melodious and dynamic course that is spontaneous in form and enigmatic in essence gives prominence not to a material substance but to a part musical, part metaphysical sensibility so deeply ingrained in Alcuaz’s being. (Adrian Maranan)
Tres Marias Series signed and dated 1985 (lower right) oil on canvas 28" x 36" (76 cm x 91 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Christian M. Aguilar confirming the authenticity of this lot Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s 1985 Tres Marias Series is one in the long line of works from his Tres Marias series. Starting from the 1970s, Alcuaz built on what critic Alice Guillermo in her 2007 critique Sightings described as a genre of “beautiful, long-gowned women with a 19th-century air engaged in a variety of domestic activities.” However, Tres Marias Series most notably bares these women down, both figuratively and literally. In the same Guillermo critique, she had taken specific notice of Alcuaz’s nudes. “One can venture to say that some of the most elegant nudes in painting come from Alcuaz’s brush,” she writes. “He abides by the basic classical disciplines but shuns theatrical gesture and dramatic color, and situates them in a more familiar contemporary context.” Tres Marias Series marries Alcuaz’s famed themes by depicting the women, usually in beautiful elegant gowns, in various states of undress. These women are lounging around a brightly lit room with a window showing a panoramic view of the city. They are relaxed with their guards down, an implicit show of trust for each other. There is a suppleness and ease to their bodies, the light bouncing off bare skin with such an intense luminosity. The vibrancy of the piece with the occasional bursts of colors makes the work all the more cohesive. Elegant and vivacious, Tres Marias Series is a testament to Alcuaz’s spontaneity, humor, and wit and his unfailing commitment to his artistic vision. (Hannah Valiente)
PROPERTY FROM THE DON J. ANTONIO ARANETA COLLECTION Barcelona signed and dated 1957 (lower left) oil on canvas 26" x 32" (66 cm x 81 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot An Early Work from Alcuaz’s Coveted Barcelona Period In 1955, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz traveled to Spain, armed with a study grant from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs made possible through the intervention and recommendation of the great Fernando Zobel, who was greatly impressed by the works of the then-23-year-old Alcuaz, which were exhibited at the Philippine Art Gallery earlier that year. (It signaled his debut not only at the legendary gallery but into the dynamic post-war Philippine art scene.) Alcuaz would enroll at the famed Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, following in the footsteps of Luna, Hidalgo, De la Rosa, and Amorsolo. Alcuaz would soon transfer to sunny Barcelona. It would be the trip of a lifetime, both literally and figuratively, as Alcuaz would not only paint a name of his own in Barcelona but would make the city his home base, setting up his own studio on the fourth floor of 285 Calle de Aragon, maintaining that place as the nucleus of his artistic base for forty years—from July 1957 until August 1997. He would also find romance in Barcelona in the bewitching person of the then-19-year-old Ute Gisela Gertrud Schmitz, a German working at a Spanish trading company, all the while pursuing commerce and languages. The two first met in 1957, around the time of Alcuaz’s solo exhibition at Galerias Manila. Federico and Ute would tie the knot on September 22, 1959, and their love would bear three sons: Christian Michael, Andreas Frederic, and Wolfgang Matthias. In Barcelona, Alcuaz became associated with the “La Puñalada,” one of the city’s most “rebellious” groups of artists who frequently convened, conversed, and debated at the La Puñalada, a restaurant serving Catalan-French haute cuisine located at Paseo de Gràcia, dubbed “Barcelona’s most expensive street” and known for being a prime cultural, entertainment, and business district. Alicia Coseteng writes in “The Transition to Maturity” chapter of the all-important monograph on Philippine art, Art Philippines: “[Alcuaz] fell in with the members of the La Puñalada group… founded by Rusinol, Casas, and Picasso—the rebel leaders against the Salon artists. Alcuaz and his contemporaries, [Jaume] Muxart, [Sergio] Aragones, and [Jordi] Aluma, began to identify themselves with the neofigurative movement, by then gathering momentum in France, Italy, and Spain. They became the Spanish “neofiguratives,” following in the spirit of the great Spaniard—Picasso.” With this fortuitous encounter—and away from the confines of conservatism, which he first acquired in his studies at the UP School of Fine Arts, then helmed by the all-powerful pack of conservatives rooted in the romantic pastoral: Amorsolo, Miranda, Herrera, and Tolentino—Alcuaz geared towards a style in which somber colors echoing a brooding atmosphere and strokes highlighted by thick, heavy impastos result in an expressiveness grounded on the La Puñalada’s attack against the Spanish formalists, who heavily relied on the plastic elements of art, altogether shunning the human figure, natural forms, everyday lived experiences, and “the objective world of nature,” as Coseteng puts it. Alcuaz’s newfound creative spirit and artistic association with the La Puñalada is discerned in this 1957 work at hand. Alcuaz depicts a band of men seated among each other, indulging in a sumptuous feast and chugging a drink or seven. (Could these be Alcuaz and his comrades outside at La Puñalada after a night feasting on grub, intoxicated with booze, and wild about art?) Alcuaz emphasizes figuration through the subjects’ bulky physical forms emphasized by rounded contours, albeit there is a deliberate blurring of the figures’ facial features. One can also discern vestiges of Cezanne’s influence in this work (Cezanne was one of Alcuaz’s foremost luminaries). Alcuaz painted the work at hand the same year he won the first prize at Barcelona’s Premio Moncada. It was the first award he received during his Barcelona years. The painting at hand is also an exceptional rarity, for it is among the first works by Alcuaz, in which he affixed his signature as “Aguilar Alcuaz.” Ovit Aguilar, Federico’s elder brother, writes in the artist’s chronology published in Paras-Perez’s monograph that their “father got really furious…when he [Federico] sent a newspaper clipping mentioning him as “Alcuaz” and not “Aguilar.” Ovit continues, “[Federico] was able to pacify our father by explaining that he used his maternal name because there were too many Aguilars in Spain.” “It was the custom in Spain that the maternal surname usually came [first]—Federico Aguilar y Alcuaz. For convenience, the “y” was dropped so that his name would come out as ‘Federico Aguilar Alcuaz.’ This our father did not readily accept or understand.” (Adrian Maranan)
Untitled (Barcelona Series) signed and dated 1961 (lower left) oil on canvas 26" x 32" (65 cm x 81 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot The beauty of Alcuaz’s paintings from his “Barcelona Period” lies in their inherent potency in capturing and marrying the melodious sensibility of music with the vivid imprinting of evocations and impressions from a piece of visual art. Perhaps the secret to this enigmatic yet stimulating amalgamation can be found in Alcuaz’s Barcelona home. “I remember that every weekend, he [Alcuaz] would buy a bunch of flowers to bring a touch of color to our home in Barcelona,” says Ute Aguilar, Alcuaz’s wife, in her annotations to her spouse’s biography written by Rod. Paras-Perez. “There was always music in our home,” she further adds. Alcuaz’s ingrained affinity for music (He loved classical music and was good at playing the cello. His father, Mariano Aguilar, from whom he inherited the love for music, was also a musical composer) can be discerned in this 1961 work from Alcuaz’s much-coveted “Barcelona Period.” The painting is composed of two subjects superimposed and overpainted on one another. The first depicts a quaint forest scene populated with lush trees and a pristine river. The other shows an array of houses seemingly lining up a tranquil street in a suburban environment. Like a music player casting diverse, harmonious tunes vividly expressing a wide array of emotions, Alcuaz seamlessly weaves the often-contradicting themes of the pastoral and the urban/metropolitan into one painting that captures the best of both worlds. Moreover, the painting possesses a mystifying layer that Alcuaz himself could only explain. The work slowly reveals Alcuaz’s affinity for an abstraction that veers away from the material and confidently embraces the lyrical, enigmatic, and surreal. This Barcelona Period painting captures Alcuaz at his most gratified and consummate, an artist in his period of golden prosperity, both in the personal and poetic sense. Alcuaz made this work during his sixth year of settlement in Spain and fourth year in Barcelona, the sunny city that he made his permanent homebase in mid-1957. In this same year, Alcuaz was awarded the Diploma of Honor at the International Exhibition of Art Libre in Paris. (Adrian Maranan)
Untitled (Landscape) signed and dated 1974 (lower left) oil on canvas 32" x 26" (82 cm x 65 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot PROVENANCE Private collection, Spain Alcuaz’s Paisaje Injecting Lyricism into Landscape Painting In 1977, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz embarked on a frantic journey, which was earlier fueled by his desire to paint Manila and its environs before he once again left for Europe. Creating a total of 150 paintings done within four months, his Portrait of Manila series rendered the city in an “inscaped cycloramic point of view,” as a 2018 National Commission for the Culture and the Arts catalog for the exhibition “Federico Aguilar Alcuaz: A Panorama of the National Artist’s Genius” described it, its ever changing cityscapes recorded in Alcuaz’s swift impressionistic brush strokes. Preceding his Portrait of Manila by three years is this 1974 landscape. Alcuaz’s paisajes – which translates from Spanish to sceneries – straddles the line between Spain and the Philippines, the two countries where Alcuaz found home. His Spanish landscapes, as evidenced by this work, are not the common pastoral scenes rooted in real-life settings but culled from memory and emotion. Figuration and abstraction he wields freely and liberally – his abstract works hold traces of figurative images and vice versa. This is evident in this work, where the artist treats the composition as an open space with no limits or hierarchy to concern himself with. His landscapes, through experimentation and his signature gestural brush strokes, transcend and break the rules placed upon landscape painting – his elements seem to ‘go beyond’ the canvas, indicating a completely new world to be explored. Alcuaz’s landscapes are neither Spanish nor Filipino – or perhaps it is both at the same time. Traces of the country’s influence remain in Alcuaz’s works, as evidenced by his quote recalled in the same 2018 catalog: “No matter how long I stay in Spain, I am told that there will always be the Filipino in my landscapes, and whenever I paint in the Philippines, I am told that the Spanish in me always comes out. So I just paint.” (Hannah Valiente)
Abstract in Green / Black signed, dated 1981 and inscribed "N.Y." (lower left) oil on canvas 19" x 20 1/2" (48 cm x 52 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot Federico Aguilar Alcuaz played with abstraction and figuration all throughout his career. One finds traces of figuration in his abstract works and his figurations a touch of abstraction. This blurring of distinction is evident in his 1981 Abstract in Green/Black. Alcuaz’s contemporary inspiration can be viewed in this piece; his 1950s Spanish sojourn brought him to the La Punalada Group of abstractionists, which includes Antoni Tàpies whose characteristic color blocks and thick black outlines made its mark on Alcuaz. Using only black and white with a spattering of green, he uses shapes, curves, and perspective to show the musicality weaving its way into the piece. Alcuaz himself is a gifted musician (he is a cellist in particular) and his sensitivity to music bleeds into his abstraction, allowing him to create abstract symphonic pieces like the lot in hand. (Hannah Valiente)
Tres Marias signed and dated 1985 (upper right) oil on canvas 26" x 31" (67 cm x 79 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Christian M. Aguilar confirming the authenticity of this lot Federico Aguilar Alcuaz is among the country’s most enduring modernists. Bold and cosmopolitan with a flair for Spanish sensibilities, his works are among the most coveted, with one of his most popular series Tres Marias finding itself in the annals of Philippine art history. “The Tres Marias series was painted between 1978 and 1979,” says Alcuaz’s older brother Mariano “Ovit” Aguilar Jr. in Rod Paras-Perez’s Parallel Texts. “The subjects were waitresses at Cafe Coquilla, Rotisserie, and the Chinese restaurant in the Manila Hilton, where he is staying. The paintings were done during the free hours or breaks of these waitresses.” In this 1985 Tres Marias, the artist evokes the somber color palette of Spanish painters Diego Velázquez and Francisco Goya but with his characteristic playfulness seeping through. Three women in what looks like traditional Spanish dresses are sitting in a loose circle, caught in the middle of a chat. His brush strokes, swift and short, give a sense of immediacy to the portraiture, as though it was a picture taken mise-en- scène, a feeling exemplified when one takes into consideration the familiar way the women are huddled together, the blurred window at their back implying their indoor setting, and the angle Alcuaz chose to paint this scene with which suggests the viewer is an unwitting guest walking into the room the women are in. “The paintings could invoke by themselves [various] anecdotes,” Alcuaz writes about a different Tres Marias painting in a December 22, 1981 journal. While it is a comment about a specific work, this sentiment could be extended to the rest of Alcuaz’s Tres Marias series. In his depiction of women amid their daily activities, he provides a tableau of the rich hidden world of women that is often not depicted elsewhere. Their camaraderie takes center stage, raising the intimate relationships one’s mother, sister, wife, and daughter engage in outside the oft-patriarchal social setting. In Alcuaz’s many iterations of the Marias, he has told a myriad of stories that do not limit themselves to one interpretation. Instead, they are evergrowing and ever-evolving, allowing the viewer to connect to his work in a deeply personal way. (Hannah Valiente)
Filipino early 20th century (dated 1959) ink on paper drawing of a “silla” (chair), ascribed to the National Artist for Visual Arts Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (1932-2011). Prominently known as an abstract (specifically Cubist) artist, Alcuaz was described by distinguished art critic and professor emerita Alice Guillermo as “one of our top-level Filipino artists who have deservedly won national and international acclaim.” Among the distinctions he received were the Prix Francisco Goya (Barcelona, 1958), Diploma of Honor at the International Exhibition of Art Libre (Paris, 1961), and Decoration of Arts, Letters and Sciences as well as Order of French Genius (Paris, 1964).
FEDERICO AGUILAR ALCUAZ FILIPINO, 1932-2011 UNTITLED, 1965 Watercolor and ink on paper mounted on board Upper left signed and dated: Aguilar Alcuaz 65; Center right inscribed: Merry Christmas/1966 Catalogue note: "The world of Alcuaz is a strange and dynamic one—charged with breathing forms and lurking shadows, filled with warm sensuous colors and vertiginous movement. Some inner sense of order compels the artist to give a wild harmony to the chaos of imagination. His vision may be wild, but it always has coherence and a special kind of grandeur." (Alicia Coseteng, Art Philippines (1992)). Federico Aguilar Alcuaz is considered one of the most successful and internationally well-known Filipino modernist artists. Following a successful solo exhibition in Manila in 1958, Aguilar used a government-awarded fellowship to relocate to Spain, settling in Barcelona, where he maintained a studio for the next forty years. The work Aguilar Alcuaz created in Barcelona exemplifies his most inventive and avant-garde explorations and garnered Alguiar Alcuaz his international recognition. The work, Untitled, 1965, exemplifies the artist's signature modernist style of the 1960s and 1970s with overlapping, flowing, and morphing shapes and spaces swirling within the entire pictorial space.
City View signed and dated 1981 (upper right) oil on canvas 14 1/2" x 18" (37 cm x 46 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Mr. Christian Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot
PROPERTY FROM THE DON EUGENIO “GENY” LOPEZ JR. COLLECTION Landscape signed and dated 1976 (lower right) oil on canvas 26" x 32" (66 cm x 81 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot WRITE UP: The landscapes of National Artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz are not a run-of-the-mill depiction of a terrain lifted from real life – though a mentee of prodigious Dr. Toribio Herrera, he forged his own path past his mentor’s Amorsoloesque sceneries with his dynamic and natural art style, playful and dreamlike at the same time. His Landscape (1976) depicts a quaint riverside in the country en plein air – rich blues and deep greens are used to illustrate the lush greenery with the stream cutting through the trees and the plain. Vibrant yellows highlight the scene, recreating the warm afternoon to an almost realistic extent. The brilliance of Alcuaz, however, shines through his impressionistic style – the leaves are depicted in spontaneous brushstrokes, the rippling water made alive by excitable dance-like sweeps. The end result is a realistic image that is warped as if in a dream, soft and intense all at once in a way that is typical for Alcuaz. (Hannah Valiente)
Untitled signed and dated 1979 (lower right) oil on canvas 12 1/2" x 16 1/2" (32 cm x 42 cm) León Gallery wishes to thank Mr. Christian Aguilar for confirming the authenticity of this lot
FEDERICO AGUILAR ALCUAZ (Philippines, 1932). Untitled, 1974. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in the lower left area. Size: 78 x 62 cm; 92 x 78 cm (frame). In this work the artist treats the composition based on an open style, whose basic characteristic is the conception of the pictorial surface as a whole, as an open field, without limits and without hierarchy. Thus, as we see here, the pictorial forms, the fruit of chance and experimentation, pure stain and gestural brushstrokes, are not limited to a composition but go beyond it, indicating to the spectator that they are forms, ideas or suggestions that go beyond the frontiers of the purely pictorial and start from the figurative. According to the words dedicated to the artist in the works belonging to the BBVA collection, "In his composition one can appreciate echoes of the Paris School, which is interesting coming from a Filipino, because of the inherent exoticism that emanates from his works; which leads us to reflect on the fact that creation in the Philippines was never as far away as we might think from that of Miró, Kandinsky or Picasso. Born in Santa Cruz, Manila, Alcuaz studied law at the Ateneo in the Philippine capital, graduating in 1955. Between 1949 and 1950 he took painting courses at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts, where he was taught by painter Fernando Amorsolo and sculptor Guillermo Tolentino, as well as other prominent Filipino artists such as Toribio Herrera, Ireneo Miranda and Constancio Bernardo. During his student years he was already awarded first prize at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts (1953), and the same award in the 1953 UP Art and 1954 Shell competitions. In 1955 he obtained a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which enabled him to move to Madrid and enter the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts. The following year he moved to Barcelona, where he joined the group La Puñalada, together with Tàpies, Cuixart and Tharrats. In Spain Alcuaz was again awarded the first Moncada Prize (1957), the Francisco de Goya Prize of the Cercle Maillol in Barcelona (1958), the first prize for painting in Sant Pol de Mar (1961), the second Vancells Prize at the IV Biennial of Tarrassa (1964), and the Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1965). From Spain he began his international projection, being distinguished in Paris with the Diploma of Honour at the International Exhibition of Free Art in 1961 and, in 1963, with the Medal of the City of Paris for Arts, Letters and Sciences. More recently, in 2007, Alcuaz was recognised by the Philippine government with the Presidential Medal of Merit for his achievements in the field of visual arts. In his fifty-five-year career, the painter has had solo exhibitions in leading galleries in Spain, the Philippines, Portugal, Poland, the United States and Germany, among other countries. Alcuaz's works are currently held in some twenty museums and cultural institutions around the world, including the Museums of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Madrid, Krakow and Warsaw, the Gulbenkian Foundation in London and the Philips Museum in Holland.
Untitled signed and dated 1979 (lower right) oil on canvas 16 1/2” x 21” (42 cm x 53 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Christian M. Aguilar confirming the authenticity of this lot WRITE UPFor nine years, spanning 1955 to 1964, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz made Barcelona his artistic base. Armed with a fellowship from Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alcuaz’s career flourished with his years in Europe. He began his arduous education in Spain, first as a craftsman then as an artist, and as luck would have it, the Barcelona of Alcuaz’s time is home to the experimental modernists rebelling against conservatism in art. He became a member of the La Puñalada group – founded by artists Rusinol, Casas, and Picasso – and sure enough, he began to identify with the neo-figurative movement. This movement rose in response to the ever-pervading influence of the Spanish formalists of the time who rely heavily on powerful lines, brutal textures, broken forms, and somber elegant colors. These formalists rejected the objective nature of the world in favor of chasing sensations. Alcuaz’s world on canvas is a strange one with dynamic, subdued colors that suggest an ever-present tragedy. His bleak landscapes are one of lurking shadows and geometrized planes and these principles are present in his 1979 untitled work. Painted in black- and-white with pops of bright red and orange, this work feels right at home with the rest of Alcuaz’s oeuvre. Throughout his 55-year career, Alcuaz became a lauded landscape and abstract painter recognized by art historian Dr. Rod Paras-Perez as the “epic troubadour of the urban landscape”. (Hannah Valiente)
Serie Madrid signed and dated 1975 (lower right) watercolor on paper 12” x 15 1/2” (30 cm x 39 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by Mr. Christian
PROPERTY FROM THE CELIA FLOR - COROMINAS COLLECTION Baguio signed and dated 1954 (lower right) watercolor on paper 16 1/2” x 20 1/4” (42 cm x 51 cm) PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist
a.) Untitled (front) signed (lower right) tempera on paper 20” x 27” (51 cm x 69 cm) b.) Portrait (Back) graphite on paper 10 1/2” x 9 1/2” (27 cm x 24 cm)
