This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by Finale Art File confirming the authenticity of this lot

ABOUT THE WORK

An exceedingly melancholic image of the Passion of Jesus Christ; head cast downward, Jesus falls down on his knees due to the weight of the cross, and Simon of Cyrene helps him carry the cross as compelled by the Romans. The Christ figure of Kiukok is in a sense an enduring memorial of human survival, body, and spirit. His most recognizable and equally critical works are those in the Crucifixion series. A somewhat touchy subject, Christ is seen as pained and tortured by society and expresses at the same time the hope of redemption from worldly shackles. The later developments of Ang Kiukok’s Christ figures are more abstract, monumental, and architectonic than their 1960s and 1970s predecessors. The artist reassembles the fragmented distorted images into a compact composition of interlocking colors reduced to geometric planes. Perspective has disappeared. Whatever lyricism there was in the earlier paintings has now been replaced with dynamic tension. The epic theme and the panoramic scope show Kiukok trying to reconcile past visual traditions with the demands of the modern world. The contrast between the starkly lit figures of the suffering Christ and Simon of Cyrene and the broodingly dark cross adds an ambivalent note to the work, suggesting that the artist’s enthusiasm for modernity is deeply felt. Kiukok’s depiction of the suffering Christ took a tortuous evolution all its own. In a June 1974 article, Eric Torres wrote: A more notable transmutation occurs in the large Crucifixions. No longer have the serene, static crucified Christs of the fifties and sixties, these later ones written with Grunewaldian anguish. Like the Crucifixions, the color stresses are morose blues and reds, which heighten the phantasmagoric character of these. Clearly, it still represents the cutting edge of 1990s Philippine cubism as much as it is the product of religious tradition. It displays grave solemnity and visual vitality and encapsulates a moment when biblical characters must come to terms with the late 20th century aesthetic evolution.