Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

The art of Malang celebrates life urban folk, and the fiesta spirit, and his abstractions of Filipino women sans the lugubriousness that other artists would rather add in depicting common folk. “Colored Lady” is representative of his countless icons of an idee fixe, a woman from among the common folk, with an elegantly long neck, posed in a world of colorful wares in bright colors. Of note in “Colored lady” is the geometric crescent in the sky. Is it the sun or the moon? This is one instance wherein the Cornucopia Baroque compulsion to crowd every square inch with detail characteristic of Filipino folk art is put on hold. Given the number of subjects, the restraint is refreshing. Emmanuel Torres once wrote that: “Ang(Kiukok)’s angular forms, but without the Expressionist angst, has in turn influenced cartoonist turned painter Mauro Malang Santos (better known as Malang) at some point in the latter’s development. Malang’s Pictorialism is as Baroque as Manansala’s, differing only in that it indulges in multisectoral and highly mannered effects".