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The alliance between architecture and the arts go back to the beginning of time when bisons were painted on the walls of man’s first home, the cave. Moving to the Quattrocento, Leonardo da Vinci was not only a painter and sculptor, he was also an architect, engineer and city planner. He would draw incessantly great cathedrals and castles as well as their elaborate portals and staircases. In the Philippines, the first Filipino architect was Félix Roxas y Arroyo — a glorious testament to his design, the lost goddess of the Escolta, is also a highlight of this auction. Manila would continue this grand tradition that married architecture and the arts, from Juan Arellano (with Fernando Amorsolo and Francesco Riccardo Monti) and Juan Nakpil (with Victorio Edades, Galo Ocampo, and Carlos “Botong” Francisco.) It would come even more to the fore after World War II when the city was overtaken with the zeal for reconstruction to re-build what had been burned to the ground in the Battle of Manila. Fernando Zóbel, in the essay ‘Modern Art in the Philippines’ (1953) remarked on how “perhaps the most curious feature of the post-war period in the Philippines had been how painting had suddenly flourished — and how painting in the modern style flourished most of all.” Zóbel thought that the necessary re-building of so many houses and buildings had created a demand for art. Certainly, he said, the exhibits were always peopled; there was a new generation of art critics and press coverage. In truth, the explosion of art was not just because something was needed to paper over blank walls. It was a new era, requiring an entirely new way of expressing reality. Two figures were proto-typical of the time : the dashing architect Leopoldo L. Coronel Jr and the equally charismatic artist Lee Aguinaldo. Both were young men in a hurry, scions of well-established families who exuded a certain zest for living and the sophisticated pursuit of happiness. Leo was described as “a chip of the old block”, his father being an architect himself and a graduate of George Washington University in DC. He was born and raised in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija and went on to study in the University of the Philippines and the Mapua Institute of Technology. He was a consistent scholar throughout his education so it was not a surprise that he would be among the top-notchers in the architecture professional licensure exams. Coronel would quickly make a name for himself with his trademark “functional architecture.” He would describe this as “injecting into all his projections conservative lines, (which was) his trademark, and with all the angles utilized to full function, eliminating superfluous designs of no practicable use.” He would marry into the family of Don Tomas Geronimo of El Porvenir (El Po) fame who established the country’s first rubber company and monopolized the manufacture of rubber shoes. Leo would be the architect of the homes of Carlos Moran Sison, Sotero Laurel, and Bienvenido Tantoco among others. Coronel would be an active member of the Manila Junior Chamber of Commerce or the Jaycees, which had just been newly established in the 1950s, an enthusiastic graduate of the Dale Carnegie course, and equally important, a patron of the Art Association of the Philippines and the Philippine Art Gallery, the country’s first champion of abstract art. The architect was a recognized collector of not only Anita Magsaysay-Ho (the magical “Egg Vendors” would hang in his offices at the ELPO Compound) but he is documented as having loaned a special work from HR Ocampo for the modernist master’s landmark exhibit at the PAG to mark his 45th year. Lee Aguinaldo, on the other hand, was an intense visionary as cosmopolitan as his background. Born in New York in 1933 to the logging tycoon Daniel R. Aguinaldo and his Russian-American wife, Lee became quickly well-known in Manila’s art circles. He would be invited to be the youngest member in the landmark “First Exhibition of Non-Objective Art, in 1954, featuring 28 works by 11 artists curated by Magtanggul Asa (Aurelio S. Alvero.) Lee would show three works and would rank alongside Hernando R. Ocampo and Fernando Zóbel. Zóbel, in particular, was a thoughtful mentor who would critique and guide his talent. Aguinaldo’s being entirely self-taught did not deter him from having his first solo show at the legendary Philippine Art Gallery (PAG) in 1956 at the ripe old age of 23. The orbits of these two young mavericks would intersect many times over. The 1950s for Lee Aguinaldo may be regarded as his seminal period, or that which would influence all his later works. Indeed, it would be a watershed period for the entire abstract movement in the Philippines, which had begun only a handful of years before. Thus, at the age of just 20, Lee would come to the attention of one of the most influential art critics of the time : Magtanggul Asa (aka Aurelio S. Alvero.) Alvero would invite him to be one of 11 artists to be featured in the culturally important “The First Exhibition of Non-Objective Art in Tagala” which took place in 1953. In this show, Aguinaldo would be considered on equal footing as Hernando R. Ocampo — who Alvero described as “the father of non-objective art in the Philippines” — and the widely respected Fernando Zóbel, as well as the other leading lights of the modernist art. Included in the exhibit were José Joya (two years older than Lee but accorded with only a single entry), Nena Saguil, Manuel Rodriguez Sr. and Victor Oteyza who Alvero likewise considered a prime mover of this new impetus. Lee exhibited three works, “Composition in Burgundy”, “Composition in Blue” and “The Blue Square.” It was decided at the last minute, however, that “The Blue Square” would be excluded from inclusion in the blackand-white plates in the catalogue “because of the great unfairness it would occasion both the painting and the painter.” This momentous occasion would take place in what Alvero himself described as a “little art shop on one of the side streets of Ermita”, none other than the now-legendary Philippine Art Gallery. The PAG would THE ASIAN CULTURAL COUNCIL AUCTION 2022 160 complete the golden trifecta that co-joined the artists with a single-minded gallery, and the support of critics and the media. Intriguingly, Alvero would quote Hans Hofmann on the opening page of the exhibit catalogue from his essay, “Search for the Real.” Hoffmann was regarded as the man who both preceded and influenced Abstract Expressionism, the dominant force in art of the time. Lee would have his first one-man show at the Philippine Gallery in April 1956 and these works, if not exactly from that very show would certainly have been part of the same series. On the reverse of the first work, Aguinaldo has signed, and dated the piece “Jan 1956” as well as given it its title “Shape No. 1.” Architect Leopoldo “Leo” Coronel Jr. would have acquired the paintings directly from the artist or from the Philippine Art Gallery, having been on friendly terms with both. (Coronel’s biography notes that he was also involved with the Aguinaldo Development Corp, which belonged to Lee’s family; while Lee Aguinaldo himself was a frequent visitor to Leo’s various parties and festivities at the ElPo Compound in Grace Park.) In these works at hand, one can glimpse the influence of that path-finder Hofmann in the works of Aguinaldo as they experiment with the power of color in the “push and pull” of the eye. “Shape No. 1” would foretell his obsession with the clean geometry of squares and windows that he would return to again and again in his career. The second work, ‘Untitled’ appears to be in the vein of ‘psychic automatism’ begun by the Surrealists and that became an important facet of abstract expressionism, in particular of Jackson Pollock. It is unclear if Aguinaldo ever saw Pollock’s paintings first hand while he was in school in the United States, but the American artist’s influence was impossible to escape, when the immensely popular Life Magazine put the question, “Is Jackson Pollock the greatest living artist in the United States?” in 1949. Lee Aguinaldo would certainly outlive Pollock; and despite his penchant to be troubled and troublesome, Aguinaldo would live up to his early promise and become one of the most significant voices in Filipino modern art.