Arts & Leisure
By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman, Reporter
Cosio’s curiosity
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Posted on July 13, 2016
PAINTERS are psychics. Fifteen years ago, visual artist Allan Cosio made woven straw his canvas and painted it with blue, green, and touches of red and yellow. He called it Bengued. Last month, a hillside of La Trinidad, Benguet made headlines when the sprawling neighborhood was turned into a mural. The homes were painted blue, green, red, and yellow as part of a Department of Tourism (DoT) Cordillera project.
Although the DoT project drew inspiration from the favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, it does resemble Cosio’s painting.
“Look how advanced an artist’s eyes are,” he said, pointing to his work.
He added: “That’s why they say artists are ahead of their time.” Bengued is part of the retrospective exhibit Three Periods of Art Making which is on view at the Alliance Française in Makati City until Aug. 19.
“It’s just presenting the periods of the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. How did it evolve? That’s it,” he said.
The painter and sculptor has been actively making art since 1975. And it turns out he’s not only a clairvoyant, but a curious creator, too. He has changed how materials are manipulated.
His works require the audience to peer closely, and at the same time, to look at them from a distance. From afar, most of the items on exhibit, including his latest trilogy called 3 Seasons, are mostly paint splatters and explosion of colors, but with coherence and charm. A closer look reveals that his canvases are not ordinary: he uses cotton straw weaves, linen, rubber mats, velour, and rattan. He once used pellon, a synthetic material inserted in collars and cuffs to make them stiff.
“I just keep working and I find myself doing things,” said the artist, who was the 2002 Chevalier recipient of l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters), France’s highest award given to both the French and foreigners for their achievements in arts. Other Filipino artists who have been similarly honored are National Artist Arturo Luz (who received his in 1987), filmmaker Amable “Tikoy” Aguiluz (2003), and painter Juvenal Sanso (2008), among others.
Asked which was his favorite piece in the exhibit, without hesitation he said it was his most recent work -- a triptych of winter, spring, and fall.
“The artist’s favorite is always his latest, because it’s the newest discovery,” he said.
“I’m going more abstract. It’s a natural progression,” he added.
Called 3 Seasons, the paintings -- done in 2000s -- feature thick brush strokes in upward and slanted motions which somehow suggest peacocks or Chinese calligraphy.
The 75-year-old artist began his career with geometric abstraction. These days, his works are experiments with unusual canvases and happy colors. In the 1990s, he did portraits, including those of Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil and Gemma Cruz Araneta, which greet the visitors at the Alliance Française gallery entrance.
“I am very fond of them,” he said of the portraits. “In the ’90s, I did series of women in Manila, one of them was Chitang Nakpil (Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil). They are women who have achieved something, that’s why I call them the ‘Big Girls.’”
Ms. Nakpil, a journalist and essayist, is the mother of Lisa Guerrero-Nakpil, a curator, and Gemma Cruz Araneta, a historian.
One side of the gallery features three other portraits done in the 1990s -- of a random guitarist, three nude women, and a group portrait of his friends. They are all done in bloody red.
Asked why he used the color he shrugged and said he did not know. “Sometimes artists just work without thinking of the colors.”
“Look how advanced an artist’s eyes are,” he said, pointing to his work.
He added: “That’s why they say artists are ahead of their time.” Bengued is part of the retrospective exhibit Three Periods of Art Making which is on view at the Alliance Française in Makati City until Aug. 19.
“It’s just presenting the periods of the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. How did it evolve? That’s it,” he said.
The painter and sculptor has been actively making art since 1975. And it turns out he’s not only a clairvoyant, but a curious creator, too. He has changed how materials are manipulated.
His works require the audience to peer closely, and at the same time, to look at them from a distance. From afar, most of the items on exhibit, including his latest trilogy called 3 Seasons, are mostly paint splatters and explosion of colors, but with coherence and charm. A closer look reveals that his canvases are not ordinary: he uses cotton straw weaves, linen, rubber mats, velour, and rattan. He once used pellon, a synthetic material inserted in collars and cuffs to make them stiff.
“I just keep working and I find myself doing things,” said the artist, who was the 2002 Chevalier recipient of l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters), France’s highest award given to both the French and foreigners for their achievements in arts. Other Filipino artists who have been similarly honored are National Artist Arturo Luz (who received his in 1987), filmmaker Amable “Tikoy” Aguiluz (2003), and painter Juvenal Sanso (2008), among others.
Asked which was his favorite piece in the exhibit, without hesitation he said it was his most recent work -- a triptych of winter, spring, and fall.
“The artist’s favorite is always his latest, because it’s the newest discovery,” he said.
“I’m going more abstract. It’s a natural progression,” he added.
Called 3 Seasons, the paintings -- done in 2000s -- feature thick brush strokes in upward and slanted motions which somehow suggest peacocks or Chinese calligraphy.
The 75-year-old artist began his career with geometric abstraction. These days, his works are experiments with unusual canvases and happy colors. In the 1990s, he did portraits, including those of Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil and Gemma Cruz Araneta, which greet the visitors at the Alliance Française gallery entrance.
“I am very fond of them,” he said of the portraits. “In the ’90s, I did series of women in Manila, one of them was Chitang Nakpil (Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil). They are women who have achieved something, that’s why I call them the ‘Big Girls.’”
Ms. Nakpil, a journalist and essayist, is the mother of Lisa Guerrero-Nakpil, a curator, and Gemma Cruz Araneta, a historian.
One side of the gallery features three other portraits done in the 1990s -- of a random guitarist, three nude women, and a group portrait of his friends. They are all done in bloody red.
Asked why he used the color he shrugged and said he did not know. “Sometimes artists just work without thinking of the colors.”
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