Blue Cosmos
signed and dated 1964 (lower right)
watercolor on paper
24 3/4" x 18 3/4" (63 cm x 48 cm)

PROVENANCE A gift from the artist to the present owner


For the greater part of her artistic life, the artist Nena Saguil utilized the color blue with such varied connotations into depicting her own fantasies and visions unto the canvas. Upon her decision to permanently reside in Paris, Saguil was motivated to break out from the mold of her more illustrious male contemporaries: Hernardo R. Ocampo, Galo Ocampo and Cesar Legaspi who were becoming respective vanguards of the Philippine Neo-Realist School. Saguil ventured into more contemplation in her art through her fervent readings of realist literature and f ictions George Elliot, Somerset Maugham, Immanuel Kant and even the Marquis de Sade made available in her fervent visits to the Malraux Library, a stone thrown away from her apartment. In the process of obsessive readings, Saguil embarked into producing a series of monochromatic abstractions in color blue, thus beginning her “Blue Period’. The abstract work is truly a sight to behold. Saguil’s masterful control of tone, shape, and color imbues the piece with a sense of ethereal wonder. While orientation of the canvas forces the viewer to study the piece as if one were gazing upon the wonders of the night sky. (J.D.)