“Lee Aguinaldo, on-and-off abstract, on-and-off pure design, but always color-sensuous, is perhaps the best color painter.” This note is part of the artist statement in Lee Aguinaldo’s 1972 exhibit in which the featured works are bordering on performance—a remark that also rings true or was already precipitated by his early action paintings, like his Flick series during the early 1960s. His creative process in these earlier works invites the viewer to imagine an event or performance upon encounter. A foremost abstractionist and pop artist, Aguinaldo was known as a progressive modernist who challenged notions of art by using different materials and methods and blurring the boundaries of different disciplines in his oeuvre. Concerned with material and process, the developments of Aguinaldo’s eclectic modernist styles were influenced by foreign art movements such as the rise of performance art in the West during the sixties and seventies. As what American writer, educator, philosopher and art critic Harold Rosenberg said in 1952, the canvas is “an arena in which to act. [. . .] What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event . . .” Mandala in Green, Aguinaldo’s captivating 1963 piece, is among his earlier abstract expressionist paintings in which the avantgarde artist suggests a modern element of performativity. He unleashes the expressive qualities of color through an intuitive creative approach rather than the meticulously orchestrated colors and rigid, methodical approach displayed in his acclaimed Linear series later on.
Provenance: Provenance: This inherited 1963 painting by Lee Aguinaldo was gifted to the present owner’s parents, Martin and Lillian Conrad, by her father’s law partner, prominent philanthropist and art benefactor George M. Jaffin in the sixties. The Manhattan law firm at that time was formerly called Jaffin, Schneider, Conrad, and Rubin. Later on, it was called Jaffin, Conrad, and Finkelstein. The piece remained in the home of the Conrad family in New York for five decades and was part of Lillian Conrad’s estate upon her death in 2002. Mr. Jaffin had a long association with the Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, also with Jacques Lipshitz, Victor Pasmore, and other international artists. As a benefactor of many artists worldwide—as he developed friendships with several prominent artists, in part through his work representing them as a lawyer—Jaffin may have bought this piece directly from Aguinaldo. Jaffin’s philanthropy extended to museums and galleries worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian, The Whitney, MoMA, and The Israel Museum, among others.
Literature: Literature: Herrera, Ma. Victoria, et al. The Life and Art of Lee Aguinaldo. Vibal Foundation, 2011, p. 192.