Provenance: Provenance: Acquired directly form the artist

ABOUT THE WORK

The book “The Struggle for Philippine Art” emphatically says about the Philippine participation to the Paris Biennale in 1971: “Except for the works of Marciano Galang, the Philippine participation was out of step with the general theme of the Paris exhibition, which was wild and freewheeling, filled with works ranging from the profound to the ridiculous.” Galang produced three long wooden bars simply but strikingly arranged. Marciano Galang is best known for his hard edge, minimal and conceptual works which he collectively calls “abstract painting”. Galang’s use of space, sparseness of precences, and an apparent attitude towards art as objecthood makes this a minimalist work. The composition of this work is almost classic in its simple severity. A shared feature of many abstractionists is something that appears on the edges or sides of the painting — a partial “painted frame”. The artist paints a band, thereby producing a partial “frame within a frame” effect. It serves as a kind of outer nimbus enclosing the inner area of the painting as much as emphasizes the foursquare pictorial format. The device appears to a greater or lesser degree in works by Lee Aguinaldo, Glenn Bautista, Chabet, Lao Lian Ben and in this work by Marciano Galang. This is a visually purifying experience, one that gave him the freedom to move outside existing art circles and explore ideas and possibilities of geometric abstraction. “True art has no value other than reflecting man’s relationship with the unknown. It has no meaning other than a consciousness of being in the dark where one’s perception of art is proof of the vastness which we are clearly a part of. As an artist, Gan believes that geometry can “create works that would defy time.” Combined with abstraction, geometry can yield forms that are forward-looking, fresh and dynamic—capable of creating dialogues between and across cultural and geographical divides. “I want to develop art whose appeal is not confined to any particular group or race, but [which is] universal. I endeavor to express rationally a calming and almost therapeutic aesthetic experience,” the artist says of the exhibition. This work is an Apollonian evocation enjoyed in perfect quiet and solitude.