Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

The Diaphanous series is, no doubt, Romulo Olazo’s main — and lasting — contribution to Philippine abstraction. Through a technique only known to the artist, he would apply oil paint on the surface of the canvas and achieve his magisterial translucent forms. The enigmatic part of his process is that the forms, while multi-layered, never succumb to opacity. This is particularly true in this work. While the black background appears as a dominating presence, the diaphanous forms, though subdued, vertical, and thin, never lose their transparency. They float on the field like gossamer presences. The viewer is brought to a resounding, almost spiritual, silence, no doubt cultivated by the awe accorded by Olazo’s hypnotic mastery of the painting medium.