PROPERTY FROM THE DON EUGENIO M. LOPEZ JR. COLLECTION

Exhibited: Fifty Years of Philippine Abstract Painting, Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1991

ABOUT THE WORK

Tempo rubato is a musical term pertaining to an expressive “shaping” of music, specifically to the rhythmic freedom resulting from the speeding up and slowing down of the tempo, at the discretion of either the conductor or the soloist. In Italian, rubare means “to rob” and tempo means “time.” Used by musicians and singers freely and intuitively, the tempo rubato makes music sound more expressive and natural and is achieved by playing uneven notes and subtle rhythmic manipulation. This 1949 piece is a captivating visualization of natural expression through National Artist H.R. Ocampo’s genius abstract discretion. Upon closer view, one gets to inquire about the circumstances that led into the creation of this piece, as suggested by the title. An artist-writer who experienced detainment for eight and a half months by the American Counter-Intelligence Corps in 1945, Ocampo may have depicted “robbed time” as a consequence of this plight. While still incarcerated, he also lost his wife in the same year. The surreal overall composition exhibited here may be out of this personal experience that impacted the direction of his craft. Highly expressive in its abstract representations of uneven shapes in tropical colors and interactions, Tempo Rubato belongs to the great artist’s “transitional” stage with the birth of his Neorealism from 1945 to 1963, also of his firm, encompassing sense of nationalism. Engaging fields of interlocking shapes and symphonies of color, often tropical and resembling to that of the natural world, characterize the celebrated oeuvre of H.R. Ocampo. This signature visual idiom has become one of the most recognizable in the history of Philippine abstraction; Ocampo’s abstract shapes in canvases laden with texture, mass, and volume are out of intuition and creative freedom, further enhanced by his refined articulation of the language of color. The viewer’s eye movements are directed through the complementation and juxtaposition of characteristic shapes and forms and purposeful colors as compositional elements in his masterpieces.