Leon Gallery wishes to thank the artist’s estate for confirming the authenticity of this lot

ABOUT THE WORK

Justin Nuyda Mapping the Psyche QUOTE: You cannot go wrong with nature, it is always right —NATIONAL ARTIST CESAR LEGASPI TO JUSTIN NUYDA. ARTICLE BY JAY BAUTISTA ENTITLED “THE TWO LIVES OF JUSTIN NUYDA,” 2018 J ustin Nuyda’s ethereal landscapes are born out of his lifelong love for nature and butterflies. Hailing from a family of lepidopterists (or lovers of butterflies), it is no surprise that the young Nuyda would take to the forest like a duck to water. “The earliest butterfly I caught was when I was in grade school,” says Nuyda as recalled by Jay Bautista in his article The Two Lives of Justin Nuyda. “I was 6, I even cried. I pointed it to my father, di ko nahuli but nahuli nya [I can’t catch it but he can]. At 7-8 years, I would tag along, hawak ko yung braso ng tatay ko, baka maiwanan ako sa gubat [I held onto my father’s arm because I might get lost in the forest].” Throughout the years, Nuyda continued traveling through the woods to document, catch, and appreciate the butterflies, a self-proclaimed first love of his. The often contradicting colors and movements he observed in nature-inspired and bled into his multiple depictions of landscapes. “In art, there are unusual colors that just can’t go with each other but they exist in a butterfly,” he says. “For example black and yellow. With a thin line of gray, you can put them together. How light to dark is. You can witness that in a butterfly, most colors exist in them already.” These shades of black, gray, and yellow are evident in this 1978 untitled work. A few years after he was conferred as one of the early recipients of the Thirteen Artists Award in 1972, this piece is reminiscent of the early sun rays piercing through the still-dark dawn skies. It is a view Nuyda probably saw a thousand times as he hikes through the mountains in search of his butterflies. The play of light and dark along with the striking yellow rays creates a magnificent picture. The works of Justin Nuyda have been described by critics as poetic. Indeed, through his masterful use of colors and lyrical landscapes, the spontaneity with which Nuyda paints his works elevates their poeticism. “I am a very spontaneous painter,” he said in an interview with the Manila Bulletin Lifestyle. “I paint as I go [and] I compose as I paint. I create based on intuition and feeling most of the time.” This freedom that he allows his works to embody creates an oeuvre that is as deeply personal to him as it would be to the piece’s viewer, their brushstrokes emphasizing the dreamlike qualities they imbibe. (Hannah Valiente)