Provenance: A gift from the artist probably in the early 1960s Private Collection, Europe

Exhibited: León Gallery, Alfonso Ossorio (1916 - 1990): Afflictions of Glory, Makati City, February 5 - 22, 2016

Literature: Guerrero Nakpil, Lisa et al. Alfonso Ossorio (1916 - 1990): Afflictions of Glory. León Gallery.

ABOUT THE WORK

Alfonso Ossorio was born in Manila, on August 2, 1916. Like his father before him, he would be shipped off to various English boarding schools, before going to the United States, where his father had taken up permanent residence. Ossorio was enrolled in the Portsmouth Priory, a Benedictine abbey, on Rhode Island. (Ossorio’s graduation made the society pages alongside a lunch tendered by Mr and Mrs W.H. Vanderbilt on their yacht.) In 1934, Alfonso entered the hallowed halls of Harvard University, emerging in 1938. He would take up residence a few years later in a ranch in New Mexico. There he would meet the gallerist Betty Parsons, also vacationing in the desert sands, a divorcee whose family had lost their fortune and is said to have hocked her engagement ring to bankroll her artistic career. Parsons would invite Ossorio to join her roster of artists, which eventually included Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, as well as the then-equally unknown Jackson Pollock, who would become a great friend and ally in the Abstract Expressionist movement. #8:’59 reflects the influence of Pollock, not least of all the raw energy embodied in the work — and the numerical, impersonal titles. It would also be the harbinger of Ossorio’s most famous works, what he called “Congregations” or assemblages for which he would become best known for. (Lisa Guerrero Nakpil)