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Lot Essay
Kadang Kadang, (Lot 126) as the title suggests, pays homage to the traditional Filipino outdoor racing game on bamboo stilts, usually played in teams. Painted in 1995 by the prolific Filipino artist Elmer Borlongan, this present lot is a simple figurative depiction of a man maneuvering confidently on thin poles high above the ground.
Throughout the artist's career, his works are dominated by depictions of the human figure, often distorted in shape and portrayed in expressionistic shades and hues. The emphasised shadowed features of the figure on stilts against the lonely grey road converging into the distance and the ominous red sky, conveys a tense energy seen in many of his works.
A recurring subject, the bald figure portrayed in this lot draws another connection to Borlongan's creative sensibilities and stages of his artistic development as the fine art graduate took to the streets for inspiration. The artist was known to have moved to and fro the city and the countryside all through his life. Around the time Kadang Kadang was painted, Borlongan was an Artist-in-Residence at CASA San Miguel, San Antonio, Zambales. The rural settling, sparseness of the background, seen in the painting likely takes its cue from the provincial area, deeply rooted in culture and tradition.
With the juxtaposition between the almost surrealist energy in Borlongan's painting and his known process of drawing from real life scenarios before finalizing them on canvas, it poses an intriguing thought to the way Borlongan interprets his experiences. Powerful and emotional, his expressionistic works go beyond the ordinary of everyday life to highlight an underlying unease of a society plagued by political instability.
Borlongan has won many awards throughout his 25-year-long career, most significantly the CCP 13 Artists Award in 1994, which helped propel his rise as an artist. With works in the collections of prominent museums throughout Asia, this visually spectacular work is a masterpiece not to be missed.
Throughout the artist's career, his works are dominated by depictions of the human figure, often distorted in shape and portrayed in expressionistic shades and hues. The emphasised shadowed features of the figure on stilts against the lonely grey road converging into the distance and the ominous red sky, conveys a tense energy seen in many of his works.
A recurring subject, the bald figure portrayed in this lot draws another connection to Borlongan's creative sensibilities and stages of his artistic development as the fine art graduate took to the streets for inspiration. The artist was known to have moved to and fro the city and the countryside all through his life. Around the time Kadang Kadang was painted, Borlongan was an Artist-in-Residence at CASA San Miguel, San Antonio, Zambales. The rural settling, sparseness of the background, seen in the painting likely takes its cue from the provincial area, deeply rooted in culture and tradition.
With the juxtaposition between the almost surrealist energy in Borlongan's painting and his known process of drawing from real life scenarios before finalizing them on canvas, it poses an intriguing thought to the way Borlongan interprets his experiences. Powerful and emotional, his expressionistic works go beyond the ordinary of everyday life to highlight an underlying unease of a society plagued by political instability.
Borlongan has won many awards throughout his 25-year-long career, most significantly the CCP 13 Artists Award in 1994, which helped propel his rise as an artist. With works in the collections of prominent museums throughout Asia, this visually spectacular work is a masterpiece not to be missed.