Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s mixed media painting in the CCP 21AM Collection exhibits the artist’s unique stylistic approach. He embellishes his work with a combination of pure linear forms and abstract shapes with strong figurative allusions. A highly personal style that is neither geometric nor gestural but one that is driven by a play on unconscious impulses. Through his painterly brushwork, dramatic tonal contrasts, textural motifs, and dynamic shapes, Aguilar Alcuaz’s abstract compositions take on a strong compelling presence that marks his intense and fierce expression for art.

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 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.