LA EVOLUTION SURREALISTE

By Arnel Mirasol

Metamorphosis of David, 1982, oil on canvas, 30 X 24 inches, Zaldy Dolatre collection

Message of a Surrealist was the title of a series of group art exhibits organized by University of Santo Tomas (UST) Fine Arts professor Glory Crumb-Rogers and her group in the seventies (below right). The UST surrealists were composed mostly of Fine Arts students, and among the names I remember as founding members of that group were the late Robert Villanueva, Ricky Lacsamana, Edwin Diamante, Aton Roxas, Crispin Villafria, Merit Evangelista, Prof. Rhoda Recto, and Salvador Diaz Jr. (third from right in photo below). They appeared in the Philippine art scene about a full four decades after Galo Ocampo painted Nuclear Ecce Homo (below left) - which was widely recognized as the first Filipino surrealist painting.

The most celebrated member of that group was Robert Villanueva, who later on, in the guise of an Igorot shaman, made his mark as a conceptual and installation artist. His 1989 installation, Archetypes: Cordillera Labyrinth, installed on the Cultural Center of the Philippines grounds won for him wide critical acclaim. A classmate and long-time friend, Jun Diaz, suggested that we join the group. Jun joined; I didn't. The reason I avoided joining that surrealist group was because I'm not yet hooked on surrealism then. The paintings I admired most at that time were those of Michelangelo and Botong Francisco.

It was only in 1981, when I saw in a book Salvador Dali's painting "Sea-Shade-Dog" (above) that surrealism caught my fancy. The painting depicts a naked girl lifting the edge of a blanket that doubles as the sea, and underneath which lies a sleeping dog. I was enthralled by that painting, and I decided, right then and there, to become a surrealist. I wanted to buy the book, but I didn't have enough money that day. When I returned a few months later to buy the book, it was no longer there. In its stead was a thicker more expensive book costing around 500 pesos, which was a lot of money in 1981. Luckily I have more than enough money that time to buy that thicker Dali book. That book, The World of Salvador Dali by Robert Descharnes, became my painting bible of sorts throughout the 1980s.

Seraglio Fantasy, 2005, oil on canvas, 24 X 24 inches, private collection

Ever since I discovered that surrealism is a "no-holds-barred" style, I find it useful in depicting not only the fantasies which I continue to indulge in to this day, but also my political advocacy. I'm admitting now that all my supposedly surrealist paintings weren't really fully surrealist. I have been re-reading lately writings on the surrealist movement, and I've "re-discovered" that for an artwork to be considered truly surrealist, it shouldn't be the product of a conscious creative process. That is, true surrealist artworks are products of the subconscious - dreams, chance, and other "automatist" and non-deliberate art-making processes - which my paintings (below right) were not.

 Gift of War,  1982, acrylic and collage on paper,

Nueva Gomorrah; 1990, acrylic, ink and silver tempera on paper

Kabaliwan ng Malalaking Lilipol sa Maliliit, 1982, oil on canvas, 30 X 24 inches

My  paintings of that period, 1981 to 1990, belong more to the social realist movement with its angry tone and overt proletarian slant. But I did used surrealist iconography in heaps. Images of levitating bodies, mutating forms, and incongruously juxtaposed objects were staples of my art then.

Checkmated Pawns, 1982, oil on canvas, 30 X 24 inches, private collection

Lupa. 1983, oil on canvas, 24 X 48 inches, Nicanor Tiongson collection

When I returned to serious painting in 2002, I still managed to come up with a painting that is social realist in tone but surrealist in imagery - Happy Man /Corrupt Bureaucrat Dissected 2 (below). This painting, although also a commentary on social issues, is already watered-down social realism. The anger is no longer there.

Corrupt Bureaucrat Dissected 2/Happy Man, 2000, acrylic on paper

It was in 2008 when a change, in both theme, form, and technique occurred in my art. That was the time when I eschewed political themes altogether and just focused mostly on depicting myths, musicians, and the fantasies which any healthy male would indulge in from time to time. The hardcore social realists may accuse me of selling out. Well, who cares? It's more fun to be naughty than to be angry anyway.

My Serenade, 2009, oil on canvas, 35 X 35 inches, Julian Felix collection