Ang Kiukok’s line of thought

CEBU, Philippines - When it seems that we have more or less a good appreciation of Ang Kiukok’s opus –– what with his catalogue raisonné, posthumous exhibitions and his paintings’ frequent appearance at international auctions –– a series of works heretofore uncollected emerges, at once enhancing and enlarging our view of the artist, his output and his context. This is especially true with “Kiukok: Works on Paper,” an exhibition organized by Finale Art File for ManilArt that will be held at the SMX Aura Taguig City on Oct. 9 to 13.

The exhibit, which features more than 20 works and spans four decades (beginning with the ink-on-paper “Pieta” from 1957 and ending with the etching-on-paper “Pieta A/P” from 1997) in the artist’s prodigious career, is an attempt to present the tendencies and tensions of Ang’s iconography, physicalized in what the art critic Patrick Flores calls as “the bare bones of the artist’s corpus.” While it doesn’t aspire to summarize Ang Kiukok’s figurative devotions, the show captures the lineaments of some of his most notable figures: the crucified Christ, the seated figure and, as mentioned, the mother and child.

Though they may mirror the figures and themes of his paintings (on which the artist’s reputation is solidly built), the works on paper are not studies of them. Each work is a complete, completed creation, pulsing with Ang Kiukok’s coruscating lines and anatomical compressions. His boxed figures, for instance, strain toward and are constrained by the parameters of paper, boundaries that are not merely suggested but actual –– “unyielding cell” and “dungeon” in the words of Flores in the catalog that accompanies the exhibition.

Aside from Ang Kiukok’s treatment of line (the crosshatchings, the shadings, the bled impressions), the show also exhibits Ang Kiukok’s coloration in his tempera-on-paper works. Featuring his seated figures, the works show the artist’s select palette: industrial blues, pallid yellows, rust. The background is black, pushing the strained body violently forward into our visual field. Cursed into containments, they are caught in poses of shame, mourning and dejection. For works that are 46 x 31 centimeters in size, they mortify.

It should be noted that most of these works were done in the 1970s during a period of great social and political upheaval. While Ang Kiukok’s works are not overt commentaries, they are exemplifications of the common, nameless man, folded, reduced and made grotesque by suffering.

“Kiukok: Works on Paper” proves that an artist with a clearly defined philosophy, an established cosmology and an abiding vision is not constrained by his materials. Whether painting on a large canvas or drawing on paper, Kiukok remained true to his subjects, their terrors and containments. Unlike the news, which presents the victim as a stranger, an other, in his art, the figures become us or at least suggest our enclosures, self-chosen or otherwise. The exhibit is clearly the work of a master.

“Kiukok: Works on Paper” will be on view at ManilArt from Oct. 9 to 13 at SMX Convention Center at SM Aura, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.