Provenance: Private Collection, Quezon City

ABOUT THE WORK

As someone who began painting in the academic technique but eventually developed into a modernist, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz was fluent in both representation and abstraction (with his foremost artistic contribution a confluence of the two). Painted in 1977, this work is Alcuazs’ return to form, describing Manila Bay. The composition has a watery, dreamlike quality: the strips of land in the foreground are reflected by the water and the sky features the pastel shades of blue, violet, salmon, and pink. Beneath the horizon line (repeated by a dash of fish trap), boats bob and sail. An orange sun, about to set, casts a brief liquid column. A trailing shape suggests a mountain range. The painting, an almost symmetrical rendition of water and sky, is redolent with a contemplative mood, providing the onlooker a front-seat view of the beauty of creation.