FEDERICO AGUILAR ALCUAZ (b. The Philippines 1932)

Reveries of Love is the elemental Federico Aguilar Alcuaz. In this painting, he ties together his fascination for the feminine form, a predilection for the romance of turn-of-the-century costume, and the bold strokes that define his style. It is both powerfully modern yet other-worldly. Ironies abound in this privately commissioned work, including a subtle nod to the Filipino old master Juan Luna's famous work with the same title, "Ensuenos de Amor", ("Reveries of Love"): a sleeping beauty captured in a daydream, the nuances of her ballgown lit, not by candlelight, but by the soft sunlit glare of the city skyline. Aguilar Alcuaz employs an unusual color palette in this work, mutating from midnight black, frost grey to stark white, references to early daguerrotypes, snapshots of a forgotten time and place.

Federico Aguilar Alcauz was recently selected Philippine National Artist for Visual Arts, Painting, Sculpture and Mixed Media by the joint-committees of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the National Commission for Culture & The Arts in its tri-annual deliberations for 2009.