Constancio Bernardo Red-Blue Interaction, IMPORTANT PHILIPPINE ART, SALCEDO AUCTION MARCH 11, 2017

​1971
Acrylic on wood
60.9 x 121.9 cm (24 x 48 in)

​Lot 21

Arguably one of the most important works of leading geometric abstractionist Constancio Bernardo to come to market, Red-Blue Interaction exemplifies the artist’s unique modernist voice. Bernardo’s turn to abstraction occurred while studying at Yale University in the 50s where he studied under the tutelage of Josef Albers, an artist and academic whose seminal book Interaction of Color studied the relationships and relativity of color.

LITERATURE

Manuel D. Duldulao, Contemporary Philippine Art (Manila: Vera-Teyes, Inc, 1972) Plate No.176
Cultural Center of the Philippines "Seasons and Generation Catalog" (Manila: CCP, 1977) 
 
Museum of Philippine Art "Constancio Bernardo Retrospective Catalogue" (Manila: MOPA, 1978)

AUCTION | SAT 11 MAR 2017, 2PM
PREVIEW | FRI 3 - FRI 10 MAR 2017, 10AM-6PM
​GROUND LEVEL, THREE SALCEDO PLACE, 121 TORDESILLAS ST, SALCEDO VILLAGE, MAKATI CITY  

​THE Op Color Interaction (aka Red-Blue Interaction) AC-0960,
​1971 Acrylic on Plywood, 94 x 63 cm

        Notes on the red-blue: Above is reproduced in Manuel Duldulao’s Contemporary Philippine Art, Q.C.: Vera-Reyes 1972 (p. 174) as Plate 176 and titled there as “Op Color Interaction”. (On the same page is P.M.).  
 
         A transparency slide of this piece (blurred with age) has an early label of “Structural Abstraction No. 14”; its original title says it belonged to a series with at least 14 pieces. (It is the only survivor of that series).

        “Op Color Interaction” No. 1 and No. 2 appear in the LG Withdrawal Report of Feb. 2, 1974 with one of them having been sold (no trace of it now).  Most probably this was in regard to the second LG Solo for that year of 1973. Indeed, before that, in 1972 it had been photographed for the said book, “Courtesy of The [sic] Luz Gallery”.
 
       But in 1975, in response to a solicitation by an outfit called Dictionary of International Biography, CMaBernardo listed an “Op Ensemble No. 1” (1971) as one of his six Major Works (lifetime as of that year). He, however, changed his mind about submitting his biography (the fee, the fee) as written for him by his son (yours truly). There is no image and trace of this if a different piece. It is likely to be one and the same, with different titles attached to a common Op.  

      Illustrative of a class: We see the evolution of the descriptive names for this illustrative piece of his Op Art; namely: at its inception in 1971 as a structural abstract; then at the LG Solos in 1972-1973 as an op color interaction (re-titled with the same tag); then in the 1975 biographical outline named as an op ensemble; and finally as a red-blue interaction in 1977-1978. [Note that the piece was done eight years before he would directly order on Nov. 13, 1979 a copy of Albers’ Interaction of Colors (London and New Haven: Yale U. Press,  1963) as shown by the invoice of Feb. 4 , 1980 (paid Apr. 30, 1980  for $13 at a 10% discount plus sales tax of .94 cents)].


      The said piece belongs to a class of Op art but only as a post-creation tag (in hindsight as it were).  Outside of the tag, it exemplifies CMaBernardo’s own structural abstraction that had merged the influences from the Constellation series (in black-and-white) and  Homage to the Square series (variable colors within constant form), both of which Josef Albers had treated separately and never merged. While so, it might be noted that Albers was at an experimental stage with both series contemporaneously with CMaBernardo’s presence (1948-1952) when Albers was a consultant at first and later a faculty at the Yale University SFA.  CMaBernardo developed his very own genre.

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