EP30: Angst & Agony on National Artist Ang Kiukok’s Works | Figurative Expressionism, Crucifixion

ArticulatePH presents Lost Conversations - a series of interviews conducted 50 years ago by publisher, art critic, and artist - Cid Reyes. These cassette tape recordings captured conversations with masters and future National Artists, now digitized and restored by ArticulatePH, and made available for today’s art enthusiasts. Listen to these invaluable sound bites - national treasures transporting us to an era on the brink of a Philippine contemporary art revolution. ***** Many wisecracks have suggested that "Ang Kiukok" represented angst, anguish, and agony. True enough, the artist, now-renowned National Artist Ang Kiukok, who once stated unequivocally, "I cannot do a happy painting," stood out from his peers and colleagues. Ang Kiukok left Philippine art with perhaps the most tortured and tormented images that have ever glazed the human eye: Crucifixion images scarred like a battlefield of torn limbs, the Dead Christ topped triumphantly with a crown of thorns, canines in gladiatorial combat, screaming human figures torched to flame, copulating lovers clutched together in painful ecstasy, junkyards of discarded and fragment iron scraps, chained men, with their twisted bodies swooning in solitary confining, spiked doors and windows opening out to a dark moonlit sky, and still lifes of gleaming pieces of red watermelons grinning like serrated teeth. Now, the paintings of the artist who could not even raise enough money for his apartment rent—thus forcing him to paint portraits of wealthy society ladies just to put food on the table—and whose works were despised for being the stuff of "bad feng shui"—are among the most snapped-up, sought-after works in local and Asian auctions. On the night of his proclamation as a National Artist, he walked gingerly to the microphone, appeared frozen in fear of facing an admiring audience, and barely uttered a succession of "Thank you..."Thank you…"Thank you." It was an agonizing experience for him. #philippineart #philippinecontemporaryart #philippinepainting #philippinesculpture #mastersinart #philippineartscene #philippineartists #philippinegallerists #artists #gallerists #oiloncanvas #acryliconcanvas #art #philippineartandculture #philippineheritage #philippinehertiageconservation #auction #auctiondarling #angkiukok #nationalartist #philippinenationalartist #lostconversations #articulateph #cidreyes #cubism #melvinmangada #nationalmuseumofthephilippines #museumfoundationofthephilippines #mfpi #victorioedades #edades #firstasianmodernist #firstfilipinomodernist #thirteenmoderns #artmovement #fernandoamorsolo #hernandoocampo #hrocampo