Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

Stained glass windows are among the countless visually enchanting trifles that found their place in the “mind’s eye” of the artist cum world traveler Pacita Abad. In Western Europe, stained glass constitutes a major form of pictorial art from the middle ages that has survived to this day. The purpose of a stained glass window is not quite for the viewers within a church to see the world outside but primarily to admit and transform light ornamentally. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as "illuminated wall decorations". Abad recreates stained glass windows with a childlike wonder. Pacita Abad’s choice of colors includes green tints which in the actual art glass process alludes to soda lime glass with iron oxide; the intense reds allude to “ruby gold” glass which is also known as “cranberry glass”; and the deep yellows which allude to cadmium Sulphur glazes in the glassmaking production. Pacita Abad is known to incorporate into the surface of her paintings materials such as traditional cloth, mirrors, beads, shells, plastic buttons and other objects. In her interpretation of stained glass windows, Pacita Abad recreates medieval “rondels” or literally round pieces of cathedral glass with the use of circular mirrors. The overall result is a triumphant celebration of light, color and life itself. Over a 32 year long career, Pacita Abad has honed her work to a visually simple language that allows for limitless interpretations on the part of the viewer. The artist barely makes demands, if any at all, to the intellect, yet the simplicity is deceptive: her abstraction is never less than exuberant. At the very core of her art is the intense vital poetry of a spirit that seeks to put a smile on the world’s face.