ABOUT THE WORK

Eduardo Castrillo is one of the very few prominent artists and artisans who once worked as jewelry designers at the legendary La Estrella del Norte (another is Hans Brumann, who was to make a name for himself with powerfully conceived mother of pearl sculptures). Having worked in the famous jewelry store may have had a strong influence in his sensibility as a sculptor, what with the fact that he leaves no aesthetic angle, or side, or view, unattended to. It is not surprising that Alice Guillermo writes that (Castrillo is) “possibly the first sculptor to grapple with the aesthetic issues of sculpture and space…” (Excerpted from “Sculpture in the Philippines: From Anito to Assemblage”, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, 1991.) The same essay says: “Interestingly, Castrillo has worked in both micro and macro forms, as in jewelry with its small exquisite forms and in public sculptures of towering dimensions…” And “…It was in the early 1970s that Eduardo Castrillo, working in metal, came up with a strong anticlassical style.” Thus his cocktail table of swirling planes breaks off western classicizing traditions with a sculptural language all Castrillo’s own (yet with a nod or two to the iconic cocktail table of Isamu Noguchi).