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THE ARTIST
AS EXPLORER: VOYAGE BEYOND REALITY
by Alice G. Guillermo
The
exceptional size of a painting, whether large-scale as in a
mural or tiny as in a miniature, brings its own distinct
significations to a visual work, as artist Claude Tayag has
recently shown. Unlike the familiar domestic dimensions of
easel painting, the large expanse of the visual field is a
challenge that the painter comes to terms with and tames
like a spirited, unpredictable steed with a masterly vigor
and flair.
In "Black
Mountain", the artist Claude Tayag successfully confronts
the problems of large-scale painting. Originally exhibited
at the ground floor lobby of the Cultural Center of the
Philippines, this work was made possible through a CCP grant
that included making available a large wall space for
mural-size work. Measuring nine by forty feet, the painting
is in black acrylic paint on unprimed cotton duck canvas.
Since a piece of ordinary canvas measures five by nine feet,
it took eight pieces sewn together to create the desired
dimensions.
The
artist brings to this work an approach that is direct and
calligraphic, lending it the character of product and
process. Its direct approach invokes the values of
spontaneity and intuition, at the same time that its large
scale calls for the involvement of the entire body,
grappling with the space of the work and charging it with
the kinetic dynamism of painterly gestures. Its spontaneity
places value on the role of the moment's insight, central
here to the creative process, involving a fluid dialogue
between space and gesture, chance and control. And it is a
process that is breathtaking, like climbing a slope with
long strides in the
excitement of striving for the summit, which rewards with an
unmatched sense of freedom and a release of energy in the
vast and vibrant space of the overarching sky. The product
itself, on the other hand, gives proof of this event when
space and time were harnessed by artistic energies.
To execute the sweeping strokes of black on white, ordinary
brushes could not suffice, but brooms of soft reeds, of two
sizes, were put into service. Their rusticity, not quite
accidental, found a natural affinity with the unprimed
canvas. For the painting ground, the canvas was left as it
is, because a coat of white priming would cut it off
irretrievably from the sensory organic qualities of the
natural cotton fiber that contributes its own
significations of freshness and simplicity.
It is a process which draws the artist into the work as he
bends over the canvas and draws large gestures in
progression, marking the space, or goes over painted areas
with strokes of lighter tone, creating levels and implying
relative depths. There ensue in the course of working
unconscious rhythms from bending over the canvas laid flat
on the ground and painting then dipping the brush into the
bucket of acrylic and painting again, following creative
impulse and artistic intuition. In this approach to a
large-scale work, the artist becomes keenly conscious of
the spatial expanse of the pictorial field, at the same time
that he realizes the temporal aspect of the work, as in a
journey in which the artist as traveller leaves tracks of
his passage. It is also a highly kinetic practice requiring
physical energy and busy movement into, along, and around
the work within a short span of time.
While it can easily be said that "Black Mountain" shows
affinities with abstract expressionism associated with the
New York School, there are, however, significant
differences. For one, most of the abstract expressionists,
such as Jackson Pollock, evenly covered the entire pictorial
field in a dense mesh of gestural strokes, thereby going
beyond the concerns of figure-ground relationship to
non-relational painting. Likewise, sheer randomness of
gesture, as in surrealist automatic writing, largely
excluded figurative allusions. "Black Mountain", however,
is essentially a landscape-universal or generalized in form,
to be sure-but one which captures the raw and powerful
energies of rocky ground bristling with hardy, untamed
vegetation, as well as the kinetic tension of climbing crags
and promontories.
It is rather in Asian philosophical and artistic concepts
that its spiritual affinities can be found. For, indeed, the
temper of Claude Tayag's mural is more Asian than Western
and the sources of his inspiration go back to zen art which
began in the Southern Sung of China as
ch'an and was
transported into Japan as
zen. Its
spontaneity and bravura capture the spark of satori, the
moment of insight that accompanies artistic
realization.
In this tradition, calligraphy plays an important part. And
in "Black Mountain" the bold sweeping gesture lines are
calligraphic in their spontaneity and directness and in the
vigorous manner in which they cut through space. They
possess a rhythmic, jagged quality, bristling with the
artist's personal energy which, as in tao philosophy, is
also an expression of the universal cosmic energy that
pervades and vitalizes all things. Clearly articulated, they
effect a lively interplay with the spaces between, around,
and above them. The blackness of the lines, their
modulations, their variable pressure, tone, and density,
with sharpness and softness alternating, their sheer
boldness of execution easily recall sumi black-and-white
painting with its calligraphic fluidity and virtuosity. The
spaces, on the other hand, become richly allusive, and
become by turn sparkling water as in a mountain-water
landscape and sky as perceived through the vigorous gesture
lines or as a transcendental space above the striving
figures.
Indeed, black-and-white calligraphic painting has always
been an important part of Claude Tayag's work, although his
art has been marked by versatility and an element of
surprise. Probably the constant factor in his art has been
the use of watercolor and waterbased pigment, such as
acrylic. Since his first one-man show in 1978, he has worked
in various thematic series. He made his artistic debut with
a watercolor series on fiestas where he showed his
outstanding ability to manage numerous figures in a large
space, such as crowds of devotees in procession, with all
the light and color of Philippine fiestas. The following
highly successful series, an offshoot of the first, had for
subjects the festival masks of Moriones, the colorful taka
or papier-mdch6 animals of Paete, and the stuffed Baguio
dolls of orange cloth. Recently, the artist has also
produced an important series on Philippine religious
imagery, particularly the santos or holy figures carved in
wood or ivory for devotional purposes. His approach is
distinctive for its quality of naive charm as though the
subjects were seen through the unspoiled eyes of a child.
In 1984, the artist held a splendid show of landscapes in
watercolor and acrylic inspired by the Baguio mountain
scenery and in which the artist explored the myriad
possibilities of watercolor and found delight in the many
insights into the art of landscape that the medium
disclosed. Some of these were small works and a number of
them in large-scale, in Japanese ink on Arches paper,
exquisitely framed like Japanese screen panels with hinges
and bright brass motifs. In these paintings, black-and-white
was dominant with color used for accent or contrast.
Likewise, the interplay of figure and space was brought out
to the full, with the spaces as integral part of the entire
compositional design and artistic expression.
Even more, these landscapes capture the spirit of the place:
the small houses dotting the grassy slopes and, through the
ancient and evergreen mountains, the mist rising in thin
diaphanous wreathes through the valleys. At times, a bright
yellow burst of sunlight is caught in a deep hollow and
reflected on the hillsides of tall pines and clusters of
cottages. The hues are mostly cool, deep blue-greens shading
into black and contrasting with their complementaries, with
white spaces between and around, crisp or soft as fog, as
the shifting tonalities follow the play of light-andshadow
on the picturesque terrain of mountains and valleys that
create the unique drama of the place. The gestural ardor of
these paintings seeks to go beyond the specific features of
the landscapes to capture the large, basic rhythms of
nature. Thus, the spontaneous and fluid calligraphy brings
out the earth movements in the undulating mountains and
hills, with everywhere the 61an vital in the trees and
vegetation stirring and burgeoning with primeval energy.
He further explored the possibilities of this landscape
series in black-and-white works in Japanese ink on
paper in the spirit of sumi painting. Their achromatic
austerity is tempered by the richness of tone, the black
often acquiring a tactile, velvety softness and the white
achieving a luminosity in the intensity of the contrast. In
Tayag's style, the figures of mountains and vegetation are
not jagged or spiky but are generally soft, their edges
blurring like fur with a secret life of their own. And as in
"Black Mountain", the interplay of black gesture lines and
white space is lively and inventive, with gentle modulations
or sharp breaks where the edge of the brush encounters the
paper at an uncommon angle. The very disposition of the
gestural figures, following a low or high horizon line or
creating horizontal rhythmic patterns, is an essential part
of the meaning of the work. These watercolors in
black-and-white combine delicacy of touch with sparkle and
brilliance, as the acrylic works in gestural strokes and
wash attest to a bold and adventurous artistic spirit.
For the artist, landscape painting is a total experience
where art and nature converge. He thus strives for authentic
feeling by immersing himself in the natural environment. As
an artist, he is also voyager, ranging the country from the
northernmost windswept Batanes and the peaks of Sagada to
the southernmost islands of Sulu.
But always, he is in search of the rare and elusive
insight, the quick and brilliant flash of wings, which
Claude Tayag as artist captures in black-and-white gesture
lines quivering, bristling or rising boldly upon a white
expanse of space, the yin and yang of creative energy. The
large-scale "Black Mountain" in its bold, intuitive, and
direct approach to landscape painting is within this Asian
spirit of adventurous discovery which the artist bids us to
share in his art.
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