Lot 72: ANG KIU KOK (b. The Philippines 1931)

Thinking man series signed and dated 'kiukok, 77' (upper left) oil on canvas laid down on board 32 x 24 in. (81 x 61 cm.) LITERATURE Juan T. Gatbonton, Jeannie E. Javelosa & Lourdes Ruth R. Roa edit., Art Philippines, The Crucible Workshop, 1992, p. 208 (illustrated.). NOTES "Kiukok's first trip to the United States in 1965 proved to be a profound experience for him. He saw at close quarters the materialism of a highly industralised society which turns human beings into machines or robots - a society which alienates and dehumanizes. Viewing Picasso's Guernica at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in which the violence of the Spanish Civil War is graphically captured, was a kind of catharsis for Kiukok." (Juan T. Gatbonton, Jeannie E. Javelosa & Lourdes Ruth R. Roa edit, Art Philippines, The Crucible Workshop, 1992, p. 209.) Upon his return to the Philippines, the artist began working on a diversity of forms that are mingled with strong emotions. " androids and robots, boxed-in human figures reduced to skeletal forms; household pets like dogs, cats and roosters turned feral and menacing." As critics observed "Suddenly Kiukok's images erupted into forceful expressions of anger, frustration and anguish, at times touched with macabre humour." (Ibid.) Dated almost 10 years after the trip, the present lot explores the same themes as mentioned above by the artist. The sense of 'entrapment' is accentuated with the architectonic quality of the forms as well as the somber colour scheme.