Lifesavers
signed and dated 1987 (lower right)
acrylic and oil on canvas,
embroidered mirrors and trapuntoe d33" x 34" (84 cm x 86 cm)
León Gallery wishes to thank Mr. and Mrs. Jack and Kristiyani Garrityfor confirming the authenticity of this lot
PROVENANCEGalleria Duemila, Inc.Finale Art File, Finale Auctions, Makati City, 13 October 2018, Lot 50
EXHIBITEDThe Luz Gallery, Wild At Art: Two Solo Exhibitions of New Worksby Pacita Abad, Makati City, February 1 - 28, 1991

Lifesavers was among the more than 50 small-scale trapunto paintings exhibited at Pacita Abad's 1991 homecoming exhibition simultaneously held at The Luz Gallery and the Ayala Museum in Makati. According to Jack Garrity, Abad created this piece in Washington, D.C., where she settled from 1986 to 1991. In an interview with Maria V. Garin and published in the March 3, 1991 issue of the Sunday Globe, Abad referred to the American capital as a "very cosmopolitan place with multinational artists and international people…a better place for a Filipina artist to be in than…New York." "Washington is a beautiful place with lots of museums and galleries and a better chance for you to meet other artists," Abad adds. During her Washington period, Abad was highly active in the international art scene. She represented the Philippines in various exhibitions, such as 'La Bienal de la Habana' in Cuba (1986); UNESCO's 40th-anniversary celebrations with a traveling show in fifteen museums in Europe and Asia (1987); and the 'International Art Show for the End of World Hunger' in Europe (1988-1989). Abad also received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts as a visual arts fellow for 1990; the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities as a visual arts grantee for 1989 and 1990; and the New York State Council on the Arts as a visiting artist. At her Washington studio, all the walls were covered with trapuntos and the floor with acrylic. She usually worked on five pieces simultaneously. "You should see my house in Washington; there is not a single square inch of white left," exclaims Abad in an article by Rachel P. Mayo published in the February 14, 1991 issue of The Manila Times. Abad characterized the works in her homecoming show as non-representational. She reveals to the Sunday Globe: "There's really no particular theme. It's nonrepresentational. It just happened...I like it better that way because then the work comes on stronger. It's just wild, colorful, and spontaneous." In those trapuntos, Abad employs a wide variety of materials, including glass, gold threads, beads, shells, embroidery, fabrics, buttons, and of course, tiny mirrors, as with the case of the trapunto at hand. She paints, cuts, silk screens, glues, and sews objects to the trapuntos to achieve a textural quality akin to a threedimensional relief. Ma. Preciosa L. Sibulo writes in her February 6, 1991 article on BusinessWorld: "Abad said most of the paintings were studies for bigger works, but as she was working on these 'studies,' she became so engrossed that she decided to have a show." Abad describes the works in the exhibit in Anjie Blardony Ureta's article in the January 31, 1991 issue of the Malaya newspaper: "Well, this time, it's even wilder! When people ask me what's new in this exhibit, I tell them: First, they are comparatively smaller in size, and second, these ones are really outrageous. If I go beyond this, I'll be painting the walls! I want the paintings to look like they're stretching out as far as the edges of the frame…And I'd love to see people turning the frames over to see if there's more at the back." (A.M.)