Alcuaz The Family Collection

Cover Artwork

Views from my House

26 x 32 in | Oil on Canvas

Copyright 2022 by Galerie Joaquin

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Text: Jack Teotico

Layout and Design: Carlo Abello

Cover: Noy Bedaña & Carlo Abello

Published By:

South East Asian Heritage Publication Inc.

814 Balagtas Street, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila

(2) 8721 0504

ISBN - 978-621-95480-1-4

ALCUAZ FEDERICO AGUILAR

The Family Collection

By: Jack Teotico

Foreword

In behalf of our family, we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to the organizers of MoCAF 2022 and to the numerous collectors, art galleries, and cultural institutions that have made this exhibition possible.

Although with the passage of time, many of these artworks are no longer in the possession of our family, the selected artworks are among our favorites. This selection includes the view of the magnificent Manila Bay from his unit, a painting of his living room and bedroom as well.

There are also nostalgic artworks of parks and vistas in Europe which remind one of his early years in Spain and Germany. Then there are artworks of his neo-figurative cum abstract works which rank among important collectors’ favorites as they combine figurative still lifes with my father’s abstract modalities. The exhibit also includes tapestries, nudes, portraits, and his celebrated abstracts.

If at all this is indeed a heartwarming reunion of artworks that bring about such fond memories of a life well lived and an indomitable spirit faithfully captured in the art that was created.

Christian Aguilar Alcuaz

Federico Aguilar Alcuaz

Born on June 6, 1932 in the City of Manila to Mariano Ana Aguilar and Encarnacion Alcuaz, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz was the sixth of eleven children. Mariano’s brood consisted of seven boys and four girls.

The elder Alcuaz was a lawyer with a successful practice, but aside from pursuing his career he was also active in the field of arts, particularly in music. Mariano could play the violin and piano. He was a composer as well and one of his biggest dreams then was to have his music published and performed by an orchestra in New York. His wife Encarnacion, on the other hand, graduated high school from La Concordia and was a full-time housewife to the Aguilar household.

The young Federico took his elementary education at the Alejandro Albert Elementary School in Dapitan St. in Manila. He completed it at the Padre Gomez Elementary School in Sampaloc when the family moved residences to P. Campa St. near the University of Santo Tomas (UST).

Federico’s family and his teachers noticed an exceptional talent in the intrepid young man. In his early teens, he would draw and sketch endlessly for hours on end. His favorites were to do sketches of people, several of them done from rote memory. Understandably, he became quite popular with his teachers as he would gift them with his personalized drawings of their portraits. Federico’s exposure to the arts came not only from his love of drawing but also from the family’s intense interest in music. Many of his siblings played various types of musical instruments and indeed there were quite a few pianos in the Aguilar household. The instrument chosen for Federico by his father was the cello and he grew up playing it quite competently that it landed him some scholarships. He also had a good voice and would occasionally be chosen to sing

solo parts with the choir during novena sessions and religious ceremonies at the UST.

Like most of Metro Manilans, World War II saw the Aguilar household evacuate to the mountains of Montalban to avoid being in the crosshairs of battle. Interestingly, there are some parallels to the life of another internationally renowned artist Juvenal Sanso, whose family likewise moved to Montalban during this period. It was an old family friend, Alfonso Doronila, who took in the Aguilar family and provided them lodging during the tumultuous war years.

After the smoke of World War II had cleared, young Federico returned to Manila and pursued his high school education with the Benedictines at the San Beda College in Mendiola.

No Way to Earn a Living

Although he liked art and loved to draw, the young Federico was growing up in a world where people felt one could not earn a living, more so sustain a family, by just being a full-time artist. In the Philippine postcolonial American period what was respected were white-collar professions particularly in the fields of medicine, accountancy, and law. Federico graduated from high school in 1949 planning to follow in his father’s footsteps in the legal profession.

Hence, he took a pre-law course in pursuing an Associate in Arts degree at the San Beda College. Being the intense, hard working person that he was, Federico decided to cross-enroll at the University of the Philippines’ School of Fine Arts in Diliman where he studied painting. Classes at the UP were held in the mornings and afternoons while classes at the San Beda college were conducted in the evening.

Among his teachers in painting were National Artist Fernando Amorsolo, Toribio Herrera, Irineo Miranda, and Constancio Bernardo. Among his upperclassmen then were Philippine Presidential Medal of Merit Awardee Juvenal Sanso, Araceli Dans, and Rodolfo Ragodon. National Artist Jose Joya was his classmate. Federico also took up courses in sculpture with

National Artist Guillermo Tolentino as his professor. In his sculpture courses, another National Artist Napoleon Abueva was his classmate.

The sideline income he made from his paintings and sketches allowed Federico to continue his passionate pursuit of his art. As such, he had the resources to take taxi rides from his painting classes in Diliman all the way to San Beda in Mendiola every day. In 1952, after graduating with an Associate in Arts degree from San Beda, Federico took up law proper at the Ateneo College of Law in Padre Faura St., Manila, successfully graduating from his law studies with a diploma in law in 1955.

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The Maestro 16.5 x 12 in | Oil on Canvas Board Private Collection

View from my House

26 x 32 in | Oil on Canvas Private Collection

While pursuing his law education at the Ateneo, Federico kept on with his art. The Jesuit priest, Father Thomas Canon, believed in his talent and continued motivating him. Seeing his potential, Fr. Canon provided him with a studio on campus. It was also at the Ateneo that he was able to attend art appreciation lectures that internationally renowned abstractionist Fernando Zobel would give at the graduate school.

Living Room Studies

16 x 25 in | Oil on Canvas Board Private Collection

Even while in law school, Federico kept busy participating in art competitions or putting up exhibitions and garnering numerous awards. In 1953, he won First Prize at the University of the Philippines Art Competition. The following year in 1954, he won First Prize at the annual Shell Art Competition for a painting titled Roadside Squatter. Also in 1954, Federico won Second Prize at the UP Annual Art Exhibition in Manila.

He started formally exhibiting his works in 1953 during which he held his first one-man exhibition of oil paintings at the San Beda College in Manila. In 1954, two more exhibitions followed – one at the Centro Escolar University in Manila, and another major one in October titled Exhibition of Paintings of Federico A. Aguilar at St. Benedict’s Hall, San Beda College. For this exhibit, Federico showed a total of 50 paintings of which 24 were oil on canvas works.

Pages 14 - 15

Apartment in Barcelona

24 x 20 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Evening View from the Artist’s Window

23.5 x 28.5 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Year 1976

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Christian

14 x 10 in | Pencil on Paper

Year 1965

Private Collection

European Sojourn

1955, the year that he got his law degree, proved to be an eventful year for Federico. He held an exhibit at the Philippine Art Gallery (PAG), the most prestigious contemporary art gallery in the Philippines. That same year, with the help of Fernando Zobel, he received a grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain to study at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain. Once in Spain, he felt that there was not much that the Academia could teach him that he did not already know. Hence, Federico did not stay enrolled there for long.

In Madrid, he shared a studio apartment with a fellow student. He kept his family constantly informed of his activities and the events he participated in by regularly sending them news clippings about his exhibits and his progress. 1955 was also the year that he decided to be known as the artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz. It is a Spanish custom that one comes to be known by one’s first name

followed by the family name and then the maternal name. Hence, for Federico, it would have been Federico Aguilar y Alcuaz. Because Aguilar was quite a common name in Spain, Federico decided that from then on he preferred to be known as Federico Aguilar Alcuaz.

In conservative and traditional post-war Manila, this did not immediately come as pleasant news to his father. Although in time, Federico was able to explain the rationale for this decision and Mariano slowly, albeit grudgingly, came to accept the fact.

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Abstract in Grey 13 x 16.5 in | Oil on Canvas

Year 1981

Romance in Spain

As Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, things started happening for the young painter. In 1956, at the age of 24, he was invited to hold a one-man exhibit, his first of several in Spain, at the highly prestigious Sala Direccion General, Museum of Contemporary Art, Madrid. At that time, he was the youngest ever to have exhibited at that venue. He also staged back-to-back exhibitions in Barcelona, at the Galerias Layetañas and the Galerias Manila. This was also the year that he met the future Mrs. Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, a winsome young German lady named Ute Gisela Schmitz, a student of business and languages in Barcelona.

It was a romance that blossomed quickly. A renaissance woman, Ute was also a student of fencing at the military club in Barcelona. Her teacher, a Filipino named Mr. Reyes, knew Alcuaz and introduced them to each other. Shortly after being introduced, Alcuaz and Ute found out they had a lot of things in common. Among these was their strong interest in Asian culture. They would talk for hours on end about Asian and Japanese art. Ute told him that she had a collection of books about these subjects and Alcuaz showed great interest in seeing them. To this day, Ute still remembers where they agreed to meet again the very next day to talk about their common interests. This was at the café in the Paseo de Gracia, right after they were introduced to one another. Rod Paras-Perez quotes Ute in his definitive book about Alcuaz entited Parallel Texts (Artlink Group, Inc., 2005): “From that time on, we spent a lot of time together. We went to dances, watched movies…we fell in love.” It was convenient that, like Alcuaz, Ute too was fluent in Spanish.

Alcuaz and Ute became inseparable. The next year, in the spring of 1957, Alcuaz was convinced Ute was the woman with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He lost no time in going to Hamburg, Germany to visit Ute’s mother and stepfather and ask for her hand in marriage. Armed with the approval of Ute’s parents, they then traveled together to various cities and parts of Germany. Alcuaz and Ute were married two years later, in September 22, 1959, at the Señora de Nuria church in Barcelona.

For their wedding, they selected two principal witnesses: the Philippine Consul to Spain Leopoldo Brias as well as a distinguished gentleman by the name of Señor Benjamin Gayubar. Señor Gayubar was first introduced to Alcuaz’s paintings in 1956 when the artist held a one-man show at the Galerias Layetañas. From that time on, Señor Gayubar not only became his foremost collector but a great friend as well. Later on, Señor Gayubar would become godfather to Alcuaz and Ute’s second son Andreas. It is the Gayubar collection that formed the bulk of the Alcuaz family’s collection in Europe. In the last two decades before his death, Alcuaz had taken to buying back his earlier paintings. When the Gayubar collection became available, he purchased it back from the Gayubar family.

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Rendezvous at the Park 20 x 16 in | Oil on Canvas Board Private Collection

Alcuaz and Ute were blessed with three children, all of them sons. Christian Michael, the eldest, became Alcuaz’s confidant and now handles the Alcuaz estate’s business affairs, was born in Hamburg in 1960. The second son, Andreas-Federic, was born in 1962 in Barcelona, and the youngest, Wolfgang Matthias, was born in Manila in 1965. Christian’s godfather was Jose (Pepe) Rodriguez, Alcuaz’s best friend during his early Barcelona days. All three children then grew up to be professionals in various creative fields. Christian finished university with a degree in design, Andreas completed a college degree in graphic design, while Matthias finished a university degree in fine arts and is currently a painter based in New York.

Alcuaz proved to be a doting father. Every week, he would bring a bouquet of flowers to add color to their Barcelona home where, like the house he himself grew up in, music was also a staple. Christian remembers him as being very supportive and allowed the children to independently develop their own interests and talents. He would only instruct or teach the children if the children themselves were the ones who asked him how something should be done.

In Barcelona, Alcuaz kept a tight group of artist friends. Every week, much like the Saturday Group of Artists of Manila set up by National Artists H.R. Ocampo and Cesar Legaspi, who two decades later would meet regularly at the Taza de Oro in the 1970s in Malate, Alcuaz and his friends gathered at a restaurant at the Paseo de Gracia called La Puñalada. In Barcelona, he sketched endlessly and tirelessly. Whether it was during his regular strolls with Ute at the Paseo de Gracia or at the

Rambla Cataluña, or during their visit to parks, Alcuaz would always try to capture on paper his impressions and his ideas. In 1957, Alcuaz put up a studio in the city that became his base and creative sanctuary whenever he was in Europe. He maintained this for four decades or when he closed this atelier down permanently.

Alicia Coseteng writing in the book Art Philippines (1992) notes that “Alcuaz was drawn into the world of his European fellows, particularly the Catalan artists and intellectuals.” He became active and animated with his colleagues and fellow members of the La Puñalada group, which had been founded by the artists Rusinol, Casas and Picasso who were the rebel leaders against the conservative and highly traditional Salon artists. Alcuaz himself together with his contemporaries Muxart, Aluma and Aragones, began to identify themselves with the neofigurative movement which was by then gathering momentum, not only in Spain, but in France and Italy as well. They became the core of the Spanish ‘neofiguratives’, following in the spirit of that great Spaniard – Picasso.

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A Countryside Scene

20 x 16 in | Oil on Canvas Board Private Collection

It was during his European stay that Alcuaz developed his interest and fluency of other languages. He was already quite proficient in Filipino, English, and Spanish. During a visit to Hamburg, he took an interest in German and became proficient in this as well. He also learned to speak a little French.

Another Alcuaz interest was water. Not only did he like to capture this subject in his canvases, such as in many of his numerous works of the Manila Bay and other bodies of water but he himself liked to be in the water. Ute recalls that Alcuaz loved to swim and that among their previous pastimes was visiting various beaches and resorts in Europe.

The nine years that Alcuaz spent in Europe proved to be among the most eventful and significant years of his life in Europe. In Spain, he had exhibits in various galleries in Santander, Burgos, Bilbao, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca. He also staged exhibits in other countries: in Lisbon and Estoril in Portugal, in Hamburg, Germany and at the Galerie Paul Cezanne in Paris, France.

He also received numerous awards such as first prize at the Premio Moncada (1957) and the Prix Francisco Goya (1958) award in Barcelona, the first prize at the Pintura Sant Pol del Mar in Spain (1961) and second prize at the Premio Vancell at the Fourth Biennial of Tarrasa in Barcelona (1964). Recognition for his art extended beyond Spanish borders. In Paris, he was awarded the Diploma of Honor at the International Exhibition of Art Libre in 1961, the distinguished honor of becoming a Chevalier of Arts, Letters, and Sciences, an award from the French Government in 1964 and also the Order of French Genius in 1964.

Return to Manila

In January of 1964, Alcuaz embarked on a road trip from Spain to Germany. But during the French leg of the journey, while approaching the city of Lyon, the Alcuaz vehicle figured in a road mishap. This was one of the reasons why the Alcuaz family decided to return to Manila from Europe. In September of that same year, the family moved to Alcuaz’s parents’ residence in Sto. Domingo st. in Quezon City.

When he had sufficiently recovered from his major car accident, Alcuaz delved into the Manila art scene immediately. Among his first projects upon his return was a one-man show at the Luz Gallery, followed by a Ten-Year Retrospective Exhibition at the National Library. In the next few years that he was in Asia, Alcuaz held a show at the Itoh Gallery in Tokyo, an exhibit at the Malacañang Palace Exhibition Hall, and a second one-man show at the Luz Gallery.

For his works and contribution to Philippine art, he was given the San Beda Alumni Association Award

(1965), the Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1965) and the Araw ng Maynila Award (1966). He was also selected to represent the Philippines in a seminar on Arts and Letters conducted by Henry Kissinger at Harvard University. In 2009, Alcuaz received the highest possible honor and recognition from the Philippine Republic when he was given the prestigious Order of National Artist award.

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Mid-Afternoon Rituals

16 x 25 in | Oil on Canvas Board Private Collection

Main Themes

Tapestries.

Tres Marias. Landscapes.

Abstracts

Neo-Figurative Still Life and Abstracts.

Portraiture. Other Works.

Tapestries

It was while in Manila that Alcuaz thought about making tapestries. During his stay in Europe, he had heard of the outstanding craftsmanship of the Czechoslovakian artists as far as the making of tapestries were concerned. In early 1968, he traveled to the historic city of Brno, located outside Prague. There he found a tapestry factory that he liked working with, and to which he returned every year until 1980 to have his tapestries made. At the factory, Alcuaz mingled closely with the workers, taking walks with them or eating in their company.

In 1969, Ute returned to Germany for the education of their three children. The arrangement allowed Alcuaz more time to work on his art, affording greater flexibility

in terms of taking up residences both in the Philippines and in Europe. He moved to a corner suite at The Manila Hilton located at the United Nations Avenue in the heart of downtown Manila. Serendipitously, his room overlooked his first studio at the Ateneo de Manila that had been allocated him by the Jesuit priest Father Thomas Canon in the 1950s.

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8 o Clock Reflection

151 x 109 in | Tapestry

The hotel was walking distance to the historic Manila Bay as well as the Rizal park and Intramuros, places Alcuaz enjoyed visiting during his regular walks in the city. The hotel has now been renovated and renamed The Manila Pavilion, but if there have been many changes in its interiors, ownership, and management, one thing is a constant, that is the fact that for 42 years, it was the home of National Artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz in Manila. Otherwise, he would be in New York, Spain, Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, the Netherlands, or wherever his artist’s wanderlust and search for discovery took him.

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Undulating Hills. Moments and Memories

87 x 56 in | Tapestry

Tres Marias

This subject started sometime in the late 1970s. He had become friends with many of the waitresses at the different food and beverage outlets of the former Manila Hilton such as the Rotisserie, the Café Coquilla, the hotel’s main dining room, and its Chinese restaurant. He would paint the waitresses during their free periods or break times, producing some of the more popular and in-demand paintings of his career. His Tres Marias series are actually akin to the Three Graces that many European masters have been painting since the Renaissance.

Landscapes

Another favorite subject of Alcuaz are landscapes. He had first cultivated his interest in this subject thanks to his painting professor, Toribio Herrera, at the University of the Philippines. Initally, he painted the barong-barongs (shanty towns) at Pasig. Later on, he painted New York’s rooftops as well as the grey winters of Central Park. Dr. Rod Paras-Perez describes him as the “epic troubadour of the urban landscape”, capturing as he has, time and again, the wonders of a Manila Bay sunset or the wide angle views of Manila, Makati, Binondo, or the Intramuros skyline. His landscapes are often done from a high panoramic viewpoint, usually from his hotel room or the roof of a tall building. He would avoid depicting too many details, opting to merely suggest them instead in his work. He has painted New York, Barcelona, Santander, and other cities he visited in the past, but the images of Manila remain among his most poignant, captivating and enthralling works.

His Manila Bay series as well as paintings of the parts and harbors of Manila are part of this category.

Alcuaz recalled that his paintings of the landscapes of Manila started sometime in the late Sixties. He had wanted to do a panoramic painting of the view of the walled city of Intramuros. Unfortunately, although he had asked for such a room with that view, the front desk had made a mistake and put him on the other side of the hotel. He decided to make do with this view and came up with his now iconinc paintings of the Manila Bay, the Luneta Park, and the green rooftops of the city.

Panoramic Tableau

17.5 x 20.5 | Oil On Canvas

Year 1979

Private Collection

Misty Skies

12 x 24 in | Oil on Canvas Private Collection

Manila Bay Splendor

29 x 46.5 | Oil On Canvas Private Collection

Abstracts

During the time he lived in Europe, Alcuaz found himself in a world enthralled by Picasso, de Kooning, Jackson Pollack, Matisse, and Kandinsky. This encouraged him to paint his abstract works for which he is known both internationally and locally.

Untitled

17.25 x 24.5 in | Oil on Board

Year 1970

Bobby & Jing Santos Collection

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Untitled 16 x 20 in | Oil on Canvas Private Collection

Composite in Green 12 x 18 in | Mix Media on paper

Untitled

9.5 x 12.75 in | Watercolor on Paper

Year 1969

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Verdant Forest

13.5 x 10.5 in | Oil on Board

Year 1980

Maria Briones Private Collection

Neo-Figurative Still Life and Abstracts

One of his biggest definitive contribution to Philippine art has been through his neo-figurative and abstract paintings. Together with his friends and colleagues at the La Puñalada group, many of Alcuaz’s paintings sprang from his “neofigurative” concepts. Alicia Coseteng in Art Philippines writes that “the neofiguratives use natural forms as points of departure for the painter to interpret and reorganize. But the motif must be discernable to the viewer. It must give him the key to enter the painter’s inner world.”

She explains further that his works have “powerful contrapuntal harmonies of geometized planes, masses and of fan-

leaf-featherlike lines and shapes which fill the canvas. The central image may at times be distinctly recognizable and at other times fragmented and reassembled into a new arrangement… Where the form is reduced to that farthest edge of abstraction, the leitmotif acquires a rhythm of its own, which subtly suggests itself to the viewer’s subconscious eye, weaving among the overlapping and moving shapes and shadows.”

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A Tabletop Setting

17.25 x 21.5 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Year 1979

Private Collection

Sumptuous Bouquet & Wine Glasses

22 x 17.5 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Private Collection

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A Formidable Feast

13.5 x 10.5 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Private Collection

Wine Glass. Full Moon

13.5 x 10.5 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Private Collection

These concepts are best captured in his artworks that have still life subjects in the center or in the foreground highlighted with an abstract background or surrealistic rendition.

Baroque Setting on a Full Moon

13.5 x 10.5 in | Oil on Canvas

Private Collection

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Fruits, Bowl & Still Life

13.5 x 10.5 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Private Collection

Lemons & Wine Glasses

9.75 x 12 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Year 1977

Private Collection

Still Life: Composition in Red 10 x 11.5 in | Oil on Canvas Private Collection

Hues of Blue

10.5 x 13.75 in | Oil on Canvas

Year 1980

Private Collection

Portraiture

In the early 1970s, Alcuaz embarked on a major project on portraiture, excitedly capturing on canvas Manila’s gliteratti and literati. He liked portraiture and considered it a challenge by which he could capture not only the character of his subject but, more importantly, the soul or inner being of the sitter. Evidently, it was his intention to make a series of works on the movers and outstanding people of the Philippines. – its cabinet ministers, successful businessmen, generals, and justices of the high court. He was able to convince people such as Jaime Cardinal Sin, then GSIS president Roman Cruz, and noted writer Carmen Guerrero Nakpil to pose for him.

He had hoped to accumulate at least 100 portraits but somewhere along the process he started slowing down and, although he had become fast friends with many of his subjects, abandoned the project together. What remained though are his outstanding portraits of some 70 of these important personalities.

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Untitled

28 x 22 in | Oil on Canvas

Year 1982

Untitled 21.75 x 17.75 in | Oil on Canvas

Year 1982

Untitled 26 x 19 | Oil On Canvas

Year 1982

Other Works

In the early 1970s, Alcuaz embarked on a major project on portraiture, excitedly capturing on canvas Manila’s gliteratti and literati. He liked portraiture and considered it a challenge by which he could capture not only the character of his subject but, more importantly, the soul or inner being of the sitter. Evidently, it was his intention to make a series of works on the movers and outstanding people of the Philippines. – its cabinet ministers, successful businessmen, generals, and justices of the high court. He was able to convince people such as Jaime Cardinal Sin, then GSIS president Roman Cruz, and noted writer Carmen Guerrero Nakpil to pose for him.

He had hoped to accumulate at least 100 portraits but somewhere along the process he started slowing down and, although he had become fast friends with many of his subjects, abandoned the project together. What remained though are his outstanding portraits of some 70 of these important personalities.

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Figure on Red Drapery

22 x 10.5 in | Oil on Canvas Board Private Collection

Study in White Slippers

18 x 13.5 in | Oil on Canvas Year 1977

Figure on Green Chair 20 x 15.75 in | Oil on Canvas

Figure with Wine Glass

27.75 x 21.5 in | Oil on Canvas

Year 1980

Alcuaz the Man

Whereas in his paintings one can see flowing lines, melodious strokes and harmonious compositions, Alcuaz the man was very intense. According to Ute, he was “extremely nervous” and a person who “could hardly sleep or rest.” (Parallel Texts) If there is anything that would soothe him, it was music. Classical music helped get him in the correct frame of mind and mood for working on his paintings. Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Bach were some of his favorite composers. Alcuaz was also an avid record collector particularly of classical music. When he painted, he had been observed to move with much grace and energy wielding his brushes much like the baton of an orchestra conductor.

He was also a study in contrasts. Although he usually conducted himself with great decorum akin to an Old World gentleman, he was a prankster non-pareil. Others called him eccentric while others would label him a plain and simple weirdo. Alcuaz was known to have tossed peanuts or sugar sachets to fellow hotel guests, or would crawl under the chairs in a 5-star restaurant to mischievously pour sugar on shoes that ladies with tired feet may have unshod. Perhaps it is because he was such a hard worker who would sometimes paint for eight to ten hours straight that some of his friends and family simply forgave him, thinking that his pranks were probably a mere form of release or an attempt to get away from the stress and tension of painting.

Interviewing him for the Mabuhay magazine gave us a first-person experience about Alcuaz the prankster. We had arrived at the appointed time together with our photographer who entered the scene with three bags full of photographic equipment. Suddenly, Alcuaz threw up both of his arms and exclaimed, “That’s it…no interview today. I’m tired.” This was to the consternation of eldest son, Christian, who had meticulously set up the appointment for us. “But pappy,” Christian protested, “these gentlemen have

come all the way from different points of Manila to do a pictorial and an interview of you.” It turned out that it was just the prankster in the artist that had come to the fore.

Even the ending of that interview was punctuated with an Alcuaz prank. As we were ready to go, Alcuaz extended his right hand to us to bid us goodbye. It was an invitation to a warm handshake only for him to pull back his hand and whirl it in circular motions in the air as we extended ours. We ended up pumping air but sharing a hearty laugh with him.

Another incident that comes to mind was during the 1st edition launch of this book in 2007, Alcuaz the artist disappeared from the view of the media and his collectors. He was only to be seen running away from manager-son Christian, pretty much like a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Alcuaz was definitely an enigma. He could recite lines or rattle off entire sections of poetry he had learned during his school days, and then just as easily forget the name of a person he just met. He had difficulty remembering the name of the Walled City of Manila (Intramuros) and important dates, although he remembered places and precise details of landscapes he had painted in the past.

Untitled 19 x 13.75 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Dramatic Impact

19.5 x 25 in | Mixed Media on Paper

Once he would leave his studio, Alcuaz did not believe in thinking about pending paintings or bringing his work mentally with him outside the studio. Alcuaz saw his moments outside his studio as opportunities for entirely new perspectives for a fresh look at his work. During the latter part of a given day, he could usually be found at his favorite hotel lobby armed with a battery-powered portable Casio keyboard (organ), a gift from the late Supreme Court Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee. He would, to the amusement of some and to the consternation of others, try to accompany whatever orchestra or string ensemble a hotel may have.

He was not one to easily let go of his artworks. He would usually sell them only to people he had taken a fondness for, and if ever, these would be at rather steep prices. Yet, he never balked at helping noteworthy causes or supporting charitable fundraising activities by generously donating several of his valuable artworks. In some instances, he donated entire collections to the institutions he had been a part of, among them his former schools – San Beda College, the Ateneo or the University of the Philippines. His generous donations have raised funds for numerous causes, among them for professorial chairs at the Ateneo College of Law, for

endowment funds of the Ateneo de Manila University, the San Beda scholarship fund, for the University of the Philippines, as well as for the UP College of Fine Arts Alumni Foundation scholarship fund.

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Quarter Moon and Blue Skies

16.25 x 23.25 in | Oil on Canvas Board

El Valor de los Toreros

14.75 x 19.5 in | Oil on Canvas

Eric

Capulong

Collection

Untitled 18.25 x 24 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Year 1969

Alcuaz in Later Years

Aside from exhibits at the Luz Gallery, Alcuaz’s works have been mounted at The Gallery of Manila Hyatt Hotel, the Museum of Philippine Art, the ABC Gallery and at The Manila Hotel. Abroad, his works were shown at the Hyatt Regency in Singapore and the Grayson Gallery in Chicago. In 1988, ALcuaz did a one-man exhibit at the Galerie Borkowski in Hannover, Germany.

In 2003, Alcuaz suffered chronic subdural hematoma. Although he recovered completely from the trauma, he put aside his brushes then and stopped painting altogether. In his later years, his daily routine was lounging around the suite at the hotel that had come be to his home for almost 40 years. After lunch, he would go on long walks, usually to visit his favorite churches and sites in Metro Manila such as Binondo, Ermita, San Sebastian, and Sta. Cruz. Sometimes his walks brought him as far as Makati. On special occasions such as on All Saints Day, he would walk all the way from his hotel in UN Avenue to the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina – a good three to four-hour walk – before walking all the way back home.

The habit of walking daily and observing little details was something that, according to Alcuaz himself, began during World War II when his father Mariano would take him to various sites of Old Manila. Christian encouraged his father in the 1990s to take up walking again not only for the exercise but for sightseeing purposes as well. They would walk together for four to five hours a day, a practice that remained with Alcuaz until his passing.

In 2005, the Ayala Museum put together a one-man retrospective of 200 of Alcuaz’s works from two major collections, namely the Benjamin Gayubar collection and the Eddie Chua collection.

In 2006, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz started working exclusively with Galerie Joaquin group for his exhibits and shows.

Through the years, Galerie Joaquin was able to host nine important one-man exhibitions, including a major retrospective at the Sapphire Ballroom at the Gateway Suites at the Araneta Center and a special anniversary show eponymously titled Federico Aguilar Alcuaz at Galerie Joaquin Singapore at the Regent Hotel at Cuscaden Road, Singapore.

Among these other memorable exhibits were The Barcelona Years (2008), Federico Aguilar Alcuaz: A Tribute (2009), Celebrating Aguilar Alcuaz (2011), Remembering Aguilar Alcuaz (2012), Essential Abstracts (2014), and National Artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz (2016).

Black Fruits. White Clouds and Autumn Skies.

31.5 x 27.25 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Year 1974

In retrospect Federico Aguilar Alcuaz had much to be proud of. His works are included in the collection of some 20 museums and major cultural institutions in the world today. Among these establishments are the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Madrid, the Gulvenkian Foundation Museum of London, the Museum of Modern Art of Warsaw, the Museum of Modern Art of Krakow, and the Philips Cultural Museum of the Netherlands.

Sotheby’s included his work at its auction of Southeast Asian paintings in April of 2007 in Singapore. This was followed by two of his abstract art pieces at the Christie’s auction in Hongkong held in May of 2007.

Sotheby’s allocated a special section of six pages in homage of Alcuaz’s 75th birthday in its September 2007 auction with all the six lots successfully sold at the action, three of them at record prices. Christie’s auction in November of 2007 included two works of the artist, a still life one and an artwork of three ladies.

Indeed, there is much that Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, National Artist, has accomplished and leaves a priceless legacy to Philippine art.

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Black Hat, Scarf and Artist’s Chair

34.5 x 28.75 in | Oil on Canvas Board

Year 1972

Jack M. Teotico Collection