Literature: Literature: Roces, Alfredo. Kiukok: Deconstructing Despair. Finale Art Gallery, 2000, Plate No. 286.

ABOUT THE WORK

National Artist Ang Kiukok typically paints fishes with exposed bones, reminiscent to X-ray art. His early works featuring the catfish also present his circle motif which is added to create tension in his compositions. Some of his fishes appear as fossil fish or dried fish split open. Alfredo Roces wrote that Ang would also avoid depicting the external scale and skin of the fish to avoid the realistic, conservative way of painting the subject. He also noted that Ang’s daughter, who favored his father’s fish paintings best, recalled fondly how Ang would take the fish bones to their backyard to dry in the sun before painting. The fish in this 1986 painting has bloodshot eyes and ready to swallow their prey.