Exhibited: Blanc Gallery, Hidalgo: Towards a History from Within, Quezon City, June 11 - July 2, 2016

ABOUT THE WORK

In Hidalgo’s Studio, Buen Calubayan aims to address the position of Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo and to seek the fine artist’s perceived locations in the “world” of art. His exhibit titled Hidalgo: Towards a History from Within explores the “world” that begins when it was first ambushed by significant changes towards the turn of the century. For Calubayan, it formed the coordinates where the possibility of “finding Hidalgo in the world” takes place. In the advent of what would become a major shift in art history, Hidalgo stayed in the safe space of Academism. As an ilustrado from a country that dragged him into its political struggles, primary concerns tend to trump experimentation. Given his achievement-based Catholic upbringing and limited resources, the most he can hope for is validation from his motherland as a painter and nothing beyond that. Furthermore, the strict Academic training did not allow Felix to make mistakes. This is evident in his numerous sketches done before doing the actual work where all errors and trials are mostly eliminated, making his masterpiece almost mechanically rendered. “Lacking its core organic emblem,” as Calubayan noted. Along with time, naturally, the world moves on. Then, in a blink, the economic and artistic evolutions changed the game. And, now, we are prompted to ask ourselves: where is Hidalgo indeed? (P.I.R.)