The
Patchwork configurations in the paintings of Roy
Veneracion (b. 1947) signaled an exciting direction
in Philippine abstraction. His works, with their
tattered and seemingly clumsy abstract patterns,
are an aesthetic criticism of the cosmetic refinement
that soon characterized the smooth and immaculately
crafted minimalist Philippine paintings. Veneracion’s
intentional shabbiness of texture and his
exaltation of trashy and scratched surface force
on the viewer a recognition of the painting as an
object controlled by the artist. Linear drawing,
oscillating color areas, select figurative forms,
energetic and rhythmic interlacing of undetermined
puzzle parts combine in an anarchic elegance not
unlike the improvisations of jazz musicians. Veneracion’s
paintings are visually atonal, disrupting harmonies
that the viewer expects.
The
Patchwork configurations in the paintings of Roy
Veneracion (b. 1947) signaled an exciting direction
in Philippine abstraction. His works, with their
tattered and seemingly clumsy abstract patterns,
are an aesthetic criticism of the cosmetic refinement
that soon characterized the smooth and immaculately
crafted minimalist Philippine paintings. Veneracion’s
intentional shabbiness of texture and 
his
exaltation of trashy and scratched surface force
on the viewer a recognition of the painting as an
object controlled by the artist. Linear drawing,
oscillating color areas, select figurative forms,
energetic and rhythmic interlacing of undetermined
puzzle parts combine in an anarchic elegance not
unlike the improvisations of jazz musicians. Veneracion’s
paintings are visually atonal, disrupting harmonies
that the viewer expects.
