Provenance: Private Collection, USA

ABOUT THE WORK

Expressionists tend to face the challenge of being misinterpreted, more so with their distortion or even omission of the figurative. Lee Aguinaldo’s works make use of space and color — utilizing dark tones while adding streaks of color to blend brilliance into the introspective melancholy that is his own emotional brew. Here in this work, we are given a very heavy, deep and somber composition. Very robust is Aguinaldo’s Palette, his strong colors subdued by his choice of gray to set the atmosphere, the distant emptiness of the backdrop, meld with the brilliant hints of red, blue and ochre, coming together to concoct this tremendously powerful, emotional display. Evocative, to say the least, Aguinaldo’s art has been at the forefront of Philippine Expressionism since his first exhibit at the Philippine Art Gallery in 1958. This very work by the pioneering abstractionist was done some five years after this landmark exhibition.