This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by the artist confirming the authenticity of the lot

Provenance: Private Collection, Makati City

Literature: Reyes, Cid, “Romulo Olazo”, Paseo Gallery, Makati City, Philippines, 2014, p. 77 (illustrated)

ABOUT THE WORK

While his glowing surfaces and crisp details reveal her adherence to the abstract aesthetic, “Diaphanous” is purely what it is, a juxtaposition of gossamer surfaces, shapes, and textures. In being diaphanous, the objects tend to lose their identity as objects and to exist as pure irregular forms. With these particular effects, the artist is able to achieve light ethereal effects or luminous passages in the thin films of color that filter the light from the surface to increasing depths. The work invites the viewer to mentally review the painting process as he strips layer after layer like thin veils of illusion until nothing but the dark background remains, and then reverses the process as the painting is once more recomposed and one appreciates the total image in depth. Olazo has often modified the basic layering process by crumpling and folding the fine diaphanous tissues, by heightening tonal play in thin facets, and by superimposing the gossamer sheets to stimulate overlapping surfaces. The total effect is one of sumptuousness and total elegance.