Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist

Literature: Reyes, Cid. Romulo Olazo. Makati City: Paseo Gallery, 2013. Full color illustration and painting description on page 68.

ABOUT THE WORK

Diaphanous? What is that? A beautiful word, a meaningful name, or a poetic title — well, all are correct in relation to the revered series of Romulo Olazo. The meaning of diaphanous is often asked in exhibitions, interviews, and even simple conversations about Filipino abstract art. Diaphanous, as defined by dictionaries, is “light, delicate, and translucent.” Furthermore, it is characterized by extreme delicacy of form, a finesse of texture as to permit seeing through, so thin as to transmit light. The unfamiliar word greeted the art scene in the early seventies, it sounded unique to artists and viewers alike. However, the word was actually a jeweled word in the world of literature, one that could make a prose glitter. In Louisa May Alcott’s famed book Little Women: “This phantom wore many faces, but it always had golden hair, was enveloped in a diaphanous cloud…” The word appeared in numerous notable novels as well, from Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace to Beyond the City by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Olazo’s Diaphanous, a series that he developed in 1972, constitutes an entire life work, with a staggering 25,000 in studies, drawings, and paintings in canvas and paper executed through a span of four decades. (P.I.R.)