KASINING ESSAYS by Arnaldo de Tondo

  Essay 46. IN DEFENSE OF APPROPRIATION (The Art of Levi Yu) In the same manner that Cubism and other modernist styles liberated painters from their compulsion to copy natural appearances, so did Post Modernism free the succeeding generation of painters from their obsession to be original. That's because in this Post Modernist era, appropriation, or the copying of the artworks of other painters is no longer looked askance at by everyone. Post Modernism dates from when Pop Art - which was a reaction against  Abstract Expressionism's negation of recognizable image - arose. Pop Art and all the other styles that came after it were subsumed by art historians under the eclectic embrace of Post Modernism. But even before the arrival of Pop Art, appropriation was already resorted to by Marcel Duchamp who came out with his mustachioed image of Mona Lisa, and Salvador Dali who painted a facsimile of Vermeer's "The Lace Maker". A 1979 painting with a longish title by Art and...

Essay 45. BROTHERS IN ART By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol  Collaboration among artists is nothing new. That is a must when the art being created is a large-scale work, like a humongous mural for example. Monumental sculptures also require a number of people to complete it. But not all collective efforts in art making are genuine collaboration. Many are just master-apprentice relationships, where the whole credit for the finished work goes to the master, while the apprentices or assistants remain unknown. Painter Philipp Badon and sculptor Daniel Carpio are now collaborating on a sculpture project. Even though Badon is obviously the master here because of his decades-long experience in art making and notable standing in the Philippine art scene, Carpio is truly his collaborator despite his young age as he is given equal prominence. And rightly so, because the art they are making are woodcarvings, sculptures. Badon contributed the concepts and designs, and did the finishing touches. Paint...

  Essay 44. The Pop-Surrealist Sensei By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol ROGER "RISHAB" TIBON is an ardent lover of nature. That sentiment shows in his art. But not for him is the conventional depictions of nature in the manner of the Amorsolo school. Tibon employs a contemporary pop-surrealist approach in his paintings which is mildly disturbing if one isn't aware of its allegorical purpose. His usage of fantastic imagery is merely his way of bringing his advocacy in step with the times. One Tibon painting that's disturbingly mysterious is his portrait of a man with a face dotted by poker card patterns like hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs. In lieu of hair, this man flaunts a luxuriant growth of sea fan corals atop his head. Completing the composition are images of a seahorse, lantern fish, seaweeds, and sea anemones. I could have easily identified this man as Tibon's interpretation of a contemporary Neptune or sea god, but the image of a rooster - even if not so cons...