By MARLON ANTHONY R. TONSON
Published October 16, 2014 2:09pm
Published October 16, 2014 2:09pm
“Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music,” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once declared.
In tune with Goethe's line, renowned architect and painter Agustin Goy puts brush to canvas to depict classical dancers in his Ballerines exhibit, his contribution to the ManilART 2014 Art Fair. Catch them displayed in the Gallery Nine exhibit from Oct. 15 to 19 at the SMX Convention Center, SM Aura Premier, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
'En L'Air' (1991). Image courtesy of ManilART.
His art pieces rendered in pastel, watercolor, and oil show ballerinas with distinctly Filipina features, their kayumanggi complexion contrasting well against the chalk-white tutus.
"This attention to figures perhaps also points to the architect in Goy, since the ballerina’s embodiment of strength, perfect form, and aesthetic projection may easily fulfill the Vitruvian requirements of 'firmatis, utilitas, venustatis (durability, utility, beauty)' in classical architecture canon," writes Jessica Jalandoni-Robillos in the exhibit's catalogue The Dance of Agustin Goy's Balletic Hands.
'Classical painter in modern life'
Vitruvius was the ancient Roman architect whose functional aesthetic has endured over the ages. But those delighting in the human form mostly recall, however, the Vitruvian Man drawn by Renaissance master Leonardo Da Vinci primarily based on the bodily measurements put down by Vitruvius' De Architectura (Book III).
The venerable 79-year old Goy's modern ballerinas distinctly exhibits his prowess as the country's most revered classicist painter. As noted by Jalandoni-Robillos, he drew upon "the life drawing lessons from no less than Vicente Manansala" who was his mentor, companion, and friend. Through Goy the golden era of Philippine art shines well into the 21st century, enlivening this year's ManilART theme of "Crossing Borders."
One cannot help but compare Goy's subjects with those of the French master Edgar Degas, whose mid- to late-19th century Impressionist paintings of ballerinas always beguiles. But Degas bucked the Impressionist tag others had put on him and, as art historian Jane Turner aptly put it, "became a classical painter in modern life." The same can be said of Goy. — BM, GMA News
The 2014 ManilART fair runs from October 16 to 19 at the SMX Convention Center, SM Aura Premier, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
