Provenance: Private Collection, Quezon City

ABOUT THE WORK

Romulo Olazo creates translucent, gem-like manifestations of chromatic brilliance in this work, with translucent colors and flat shapes, both achieved by the inherent qualities of the medium. In the Diaphanous series, form and color are fused as one in a faint but interlocked relationship, and from their union emanates a disembodied, spectral look. Intriguingly, the rich, dense and complex layers of light — even in works that disport a flourish and flamboyance of forms — never lose their austere quality. Olazo began his career as an artist when the foundations of a modernist tradition were being laid, by key figures such as Vicente Manansala, Victorio Edades, H.R Ocampo and Fernando Zobel. Olazo first came to the fore as a printmaker who made striking innovations in this field. This fed into the development of his Diaphanous series, a unique body of abstract paintings that “are veritable visions of light. They have been likened to dragonfly wings, sheets of gossamer veil or gauze, and even a symphony.” Olazo always had an impulse toward pristine compositions.