PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF A VERY DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN
Through The Window
dated 1970 (verso)
oil on canvas
24" x 20" (61 cm x 51 cm)


PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the artist



Jaime de Guzman’s Through The Window was created at a momentous period of the artist’s career. Already a celebrated painter from the late 1960s to 1970s, his artistry was once again celebrated when he was included in the first batch of the Thirteen Artists Award in 1970, handpicked by no less than eminent artist Roberto Chabet himself. Through The Window was created in the same year he received the prestigious award. With his signature expressionist brush strokes – all exaggerated and sweeping with emotions – de Guzman takes the perspective of a mother, or perhaps a grandmother, staring out through a window to watch over her child. He utilizes a deep color scheme, portraying the antiquity of the wooden windowsill and the age of the tree the child leans against through the mature colors. De Guzman’s earlier works are, in shades of red and black, steeped in angst, somber and surrealist in their anger. As he traveled around the world and in the Philippines, his oeuvre mellowed down as he rekindled with a softer and kinder nature. Through The Window merges De Guzman’s darker palette with a softer subject, creating a perfect middle ground between his vastly different works to portray both the unapologetically bold and the mellifluous joy that makes itself home in his body of works. (Hannah Valiente)