ABOUT THE WORK

The original La Barca de Aqueronte (The Boat of Charon) is a metaphor of the struggle between life and death—of the departed desperately seeking peace. It is also a political parable of the Filipino on a tumultuous journey to liberty. La Barca was created by Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo in 1887, in the same year as Jose Rizal finished his magnum opus, Noli Me Tangere. Charon is the ferryman of Hades who carries those who have newly perished across the rivers that divide the world of the living from the world of the dead. Some resist, others eagerly join their last journey from earth. Hidalgo is said to have taken inspiration from a reading of Dante’s Inferno, and there could be no more apt description of the Philippines in the 19th century. In 2016, Buen Calubayan began his landmark project, Hidalgo: Towards a History from Within, which follows the trajectory of the Filipino masters in the so-called Gilded Age. “Hidalgo,” he writes, “occupies the historical line of research that was started in Spoliarium (2013) towards the understanding of a period characterized as ‘the pinnacle of Philippine art.’ Such understanding is crucial in order to counter-illuminate the shadows cast by ‘the greatest Filipino painters.’” He continues, The objective of this project is to problematize the positioning of Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo and to understand his perceived location(s) in a given “world.” This “world” broadly spans from the 19th century where it was ambushed by significant changes towards the turn of the century. These changes form the coordinates where the possibility of “finding Hidalgo in the world” takes place. Calubayan deliberately appropriates the Hidalgo masterpiece with these differences, as noted in his detailed condition report, “Some figures from the original were omitted, particularly Charon and the boat, to give emphasis on the figures and the surrounding darkness.” In a powerful argument for nonobjective art, Calubayan asserts, “We have never left the Academy. Like Felix, we are all timid academic painters, modernists, and conceptualists.” His selection of Hidalgo’s most-awarded and recognized work is critical. The result is a large-scale imposing commentary on our art history and the identities formed by that history. La Barca de Aqueronte is thus one of Calubayan’s most important works from a world-class artist who is unafraid to defy legends. (Lisa Guerrero Nakpil)