{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":1709,"auction_id":3,"set_id":4,"lot_number":"21","artist":"Nena Saguil (1924 - 1994)","title":"Composition Red","starting_price":2400000,"signed_dated":"signed, inscribed Paris and dated 1959 (lower left)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"22\" x 52\" (56 cm x 132 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by Finale Art File\nand signed by Ramon Villegas confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"OLIVIA YAO Collector of the Avant-Garde
\nBanker, collector, and most recently publisher of art books, Olivia Yao has followed her unique passions, creating a unique world all her own.
\nShe helmed the production of the book Art After War: 1948- 1969, assembling a team of art historians, researchers, writers, photographers, and book designers to produce this landmark book on Philippine Modern Art.
\nMrs. Yao would next be involved with the St. Luke’s Medical Center for resource development; and with its foundation as director for resource generation.
\nShe is known among Manila’s cultural circles as a discerning and sophisticated collector of avant-garde modern and contemporary art.
\n Olivia first cut her teeth in the world of finance in Boston in the 1990s, having graduated with an MBA from Boston College. She has been quoted as saying, “Living in Boston opened my eyes to the world of museums since I would take trips from Boston to New York often and my interest in art carried on when I moved back to Manila. Collecting art became a life passion from then on. Curating my collection is an expression of my individual personality. The emotions evoked when seeing and acquiring art are very personal whether you identify yourself with the image, color, or the artist. For me, collecting art is an evolving process and one should not remain stagnant.” (Lisa Guerrero Nakpil)
\n\nSimplicia “Nena” Laconico Saguil (1914-1994) was a pioneering Filipino modern artist. In 2006 President Arroyo posthumously awarded Saguil a Presidential Medal of Merit.
\nShe was known as a feminist, a mystic and a recluse. She spoke of being a lonely child in a large family. Not wanting to attend Catholic school, as her conservative parents wished her to, Saguil instead studied art at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts where the artist Anita Magsaysay happened to be a classmate. Saguil was awarded a certificate in painting in 1933.
\nIt was not surprising that after World War II, Saguil found herself in the circle of Hernando R. Ocampo and his many artist friends. During this period Saguil became increasingly interested in modern art, and was attracted to the work of Pablo Picasso. She completed her Bachelor's Degree in 1949, earning an Award of Excellence.
\nShe would soon, however, break from the academic mold and lie in the full embrace of modernism.
\nSaguil would become active in the newly formed Philippine Art Gallery (P.A.G.) run by Lyd Arguilla, serving as a volunteer watching over the gallery. Saguil exhibited there and became associated with other notable Philippine modernists.
\nShe would move to Europe on a scholarship in 1954 and in 1956, Saguil would make her home in Paris The following year Saguil had a solo show at Galerie Raymond Creuze in Paris, where she exhibited works with linear and geometric elements.
\nIt was in this period that the work at hand was created, a synthesis of not only the influence of the Manila NeoRealists but also her study at the Ecole d’Art Americaines. Composition Red is bold and brash, a gestural piece laden with bravado and impasto.
\nFrom an essay by RAMON VILLEGAS","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"
Nena Saguil (1924 - 1994) Composition Red signed, inscribed Paris and dated 1959 (lower left) oil on canvas 22\" x 52\" (56 cm x 132 cm)