"Appreciating the paintings of Ang Kiukok is not easy.” These are the words of Ma. Elizabeth L. Gustillo, the senior director of the Ayala Museum, in her message as written on Ang Kiukok: The Golden Years (1954 - 2004). Indeed, Kiukok’s pieces tend to disturb with their harshness – he has always avoided pretty things, instead gravitating towards the disturbing and the grotesque. With this 1996 piece, Kiukok’s signature fragmentation is on center stage. With a pitch black background, the viewer's attention is drawn on the abstraction that Kiukok placed squarely on the center. He plays around with the pictorial plane, circular motifs and harsh lines coexisting to create multiple spatial observations. One could see a myriad of images within the crooks and crannies of the planes, a testament to Kiukok’s artistic eye. Using an approximation of cubism, Kiukok manages to create such a visually stimulating piece, utilizing every element from composition to colors to light and shadows to put forth a message. When asked in the 1970s about why he was so angry, he replied: “Why not? Open your eyes. Look around you. So much anger, sorrow, ugliness. And also madness.” Indeed, even in abstraction, the emotions that grip Kiukok still bleed through, soaking every edge, element, and color with that signature Kiukok sorrow. (Hannah Valiente)