Literature: Literature: Roces, Alfredo. Kiukok: Deconstructing Despair. Finale Art Gallery, 2000, Plate No. 424.

ABOUT THE WORK

Adhering to the Philippine Modernist School principles, Ang Kiukok stresses an interplay of colors and forms within a tight composition—this is his way of putting order in his paintings. This focus can be seen in this particular work in which the influence of American artist Morris Graves and his rough-stone-textured paintings is also apparent. The father and son appear as one interdependently intertwined knot, representing a two-way relationship. Highly expressive and striking at best, the stylized figuration of a father whose arms embrace his son tightly is also set in a tight space, adding an evocative appeal to the piece. Ang’s subjects mostly appear as experiencing anguish, pain, and angst. His fishermen, for instance, are usually in hard labor. As for his mother/father and child paintings, the parent’s arms are oftentimes tangled around the child in either affection or conflict. The master artist is nonconformist in a way that he also depicts the burden and emotional toll on motherhood or fatherhood, not just their love for their child. It is also notable that Ang studies the essence of his subjects before painting them, as evident in this work, showing the influence of the Chinese approach to art in Ang’s craft. National Artist Ang Kiukok became known for his fusion of cubism, surrealism, and expressionism, assimilating these influences but also forming and arriving in his signature style. He experimented with his chosen medium, mastered brushwork and palette knife techniques, and produced works far from anything formulaic as he rendered evocative forms and colors in striking harmony. Surface arrangements composed of planes, line, and shape often overlap and interlock, achieving solidity and volume.