Ang kiukok “Table” 1972 on Canvas Size: 30″ x 30″
₱50,000.00
Ang Kiukok was mentored by Vicente Manansala, a member of the Filipino modernist group known as the Neo-Realists. Manansala cited Pablo Picasso as one of his major Cubist influences. Art critic Leonidas Benesa describes Picasso’s 1937 painting Guernica as a “15th Station of the Cross in a modern context, and particularly in the context of Ang’s Christian convert version”. In 1965, during a trip from Los Angeles, Ang headed to New York by himself and came face to face with the monumental painting at the Museum of Modern Art. This significant encounter, preconditioned by his exposure to the undercurrents of Cubism within his midst, had served as a turning point in his artistic consciousness.
In Table (1972), the monochromatic tones and geometric shapes take up most of the picture plane. The composition feels tense and limited by the square frame, yet the viewer is invited further into the painting to examine its form.
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In Jose Joya’s gestural works from the1960s, paint was applied intuitively and spontaneously. The rough surface textures were achieved by using broad brush strokes using brushes or spatulas or directly applied from the tube onto the canvas. The impasto finish mixed with sand over layers of primer, creates a sensual experience. Joya masters a delicate balance between control and spontaneity, translating into a visual language that holds unique to his body of work.
Ang Kiukok’s proclivity to portray his usual subjects in various compositions and themes is present in the still life, Red Table (1970). The lines in his paintings emphasize geometric forms that overlap with each other that fill up the canvas space and limit the perspective. The colors are rudimentary, and in this painting, it is limited to red, orange, white, and black. The effect reinforces the linear framework. This transforms the table into a distorted and fragmented image, reflecting Kiukok’s worldview full of angst and inner turmoil.
The thematic expressions present in Ang Kiukok’s works often revolve around representations of still life, dog fights, crucifixions, his junkscape series, human figures in anguish, and seated figures. While the other themes highlight brute instinct and intense expressions, Kiukok’s still life paintings show a lighter side to his body of work. The vibrant colors in complementing schemes and contorted shapes of Lamesa (1979) draw us into an interior perspective that recedes into the pictorial plane.
Vicente Manansala was an excellent draftsman. His technical proficiency in drawing enabled him to experiment and perfect his style of Cubism even as he worked with his recurring motifs of a mother and child, families, still-life, vendors, workers, and beggars, landscapes, and religious themes. Manansala seemingly formed a mystical bond with the natural world that despite the fragmentation and distortion of reality that would come out of his works, the imagery and visual motifs of his work remained grounded with objectivity.
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