Provenance: Liongoren Gallery

Literature: Ramon N. Villegas & Lisa Guerrero Nakpil, TWO NAVELS: LEON CURATED AUCTION, Leon Gallery, Makati City, 2016, p. 90-91 and p. 92-93 (illustrated)

ABOUT THE WORK

As he asserts in a wall length “time chart” that he created in a Quezon City Gallery about the complex evolution and history of his art, the themes in Buen Calubayan’s work have developed in many distinct directions and themes. Issues have been explored in their many aspects in successive versions, though remaining unchanged in its essentials or it may evolve, in the course of which the artist himself has gone through successive stages of development. Calubayan’s run ins with educational and religious institutions such as UST (which resulted in a court decision), notwithstanding (he was also a key member of the erstwhile group of protest artists “Kritikal Katoliko”, headed by Manny Garibay), at the core of his art is an outspoken freedom and a freshness of spirit that immediately draws one into his vision of inner tranquility amid life’s harsher episodes. Even with the use of broad, brooding, and very dark strokes, Calubayan surprisingly displays a vibrant sense of spontaneity into the painting, which in turn results in a triptych that creates an astonishing sense of calm in the viewer. Effervescent red oranges, and aqueous blues peek “behind the overcast clouds”. The varying tonalities and overpowering horizontal strokes result in a feeling of vastness and depth, while at the same time conveying a sense of spirituality and tranquility. His use of flat, bright, exhilarating colors and sweeping strokes and manifestations of texture add to the majestic and surreal nature of the triptych. Buen Calubayan’s art is a dramatic abstraction of time and place that is deeply felt. Although he is an astute witness and critic to social and institutional issues, at the heart of his painting is the meditative Filipino spirit. Looking beyond the artist’s escape from angst (and scarring memories) one is made aware of his philosophical and intellectual approaches to inner tranquility.