ABOUT THE WORK

What lifts him a brow higher than most painters who glorify the masses in the manner of the Angono School is that his pictorial approach is abstract and the figures and the environmental objects which hem them in escape prettification. For pictorial effects, Antonio chooses characters and vignettes that evoke an ordered rhythm. Stylistic distortion is most pronounced in illogical positioning of the human elements beyond normal realistic proportion. Sometimes the human figures are merged with the objects and the setting. This coupled with an incisive dynamic draftsmanship and vigorous brushwork make for a potent combination. There is a certain uneasiness in the dissonance of colors — the acid yellows, the bright greens, the cool blues, the thick blacks, that makes for the strength of this work. For Angelito Antonio, color represented the optimism and nobility of his lowly subjects in art, and a hope for relief from the pessimistic associations from which they are usually described with. Although influenced by Vicente Manansala’s transparent cubism, Antonio’s works, as exemplified by this untitled work, manifest a distinct style based on juxtaposition of shapes defined with linear clarity and pure lines that blur into washed out tones.