signed and dated 1953 (lower right)
oil on masonite board
17 1/2" x 23 3/4" (44 cm x 60 cm)


PROVENANCE:Private collection, Davao
EXHIBITED:Philippine Cultural Exhibition, 1953-1954. An Exhibition of Paintings andSculpture by 21 Philippine Artists. Arranged by the Philippine Art Gallery.Shown at the Carnegie Endowment International Center on 46th Street, NewYork City, from September 1 to October 1, 1953; at the American InternationalUnderwriters Building at 102 Maiden Lane,New York City, from November16 to December 15,1953; at the Chancery of the Embassy of the Philippines,Washington, D. C., from February 24 to March 9, 1954.
LITERATURE:Philippine Cultural Exhibition, 1953-1954, Catalogue.Published by the Philippine Art Gallery,New York, 1953. Complete Catalog of Works Exhibited, Page 41;Lyd Arguilla, Romeo Tabuena, Fernando Zóbel, 7 Years of the Philippine ArtGallery (1951-1957), Published by the Philippine Art Gallery, 1958,Listed as No. 650, Page Ap — 12.

WRITE UP:
Saguil’s Gauguin Table by LISA GUERRERO NAKPILNena Saguil’s first impulses were inspired by Gauguin, so said Parisian art critic Waldemar George. The lush colors, voluptuous shapes of this Frenchman in Tahiti are to be found in this early work, Still Life No. 2. It’s a countryside feast of fruit spread out on a bamboo table, under a bending banana tree, painted in the aftermath of World War II: There’s an air of optimism in the painting, as expressed by the bright colors. certainly it was the end of a period of want and destruction. There is an array of fruit from that era: mangos and rice cakes, avocados and macopas, papaya and suha, but also duhat and a pile of mangosteen, one of them tantalizingly open. Saguil would be at the intersection of the classical and the modern non-objective art in 1951. Schooled by Fabian de la Rosa and Fernando Amorsolo, she would however embrace their diametrical opposites, Victorio Edades and Hernando R. Ocampo. She would take that important plunge to join the Neo-Realists as they merged with the Philippine Art Gallery. She would be one of the rising stars of the PAG and the Art Association of the Philippines alongside her former classmate at the University of the Philippines, Anita Magsaysay-Ho. (They were just a few months apart in age, both born in 1914.) Saguil’s Still Life No. 2 would travel to the United States to be part of the landmark Philippine Cultural Exhibition, featuring 21 of the Philippine Art Gallery’s roster. It was originally in the collection of PAG founder, Lyd Arguilla, making it doubly historic.