A Descriptive Analysis of Ang Kiukok’s Fishermen
In 2017, an easel painting titled Fishermen was sold for the incredible amount of 65 million pesos in an auction held by Leon Gallery, the Philippines’ most premiere and trusted auction house. Although that is an incredible price for any painting, it would not have been as such had it not been for the national fame and reputation of its painter, the National artist Ang Kiukok (1931–2005). I first came across this painting while browsing through an article in the Philippine Star newspaper and was impressed by its angular composition. It was then I decided to write an Ekphrastic article about this particular painting.
Made in 1981, Ang Kiukok’s painting is measured at 40 x 80 inches, which makes a significantly wide artwork that can decorate an adequately spacious wall. The painting depicts a group of three fishermen catching several fish with a large net during what appears to be a late afternoon, as a blood-red sun hangs up in the center of the artwork amidst an entirely dark brown background. The three fishermen are all naked and possess abstract anatomy and are portrayed in imposing but awkward poses. The fisherman on the left-most part of the canvas is the most ordinary-looking out of the trio. He stands upright and tall, a shadow blanketing his face and much of his upper body as both his arms stretch a triangular-shaped net. In the triangle-like space in between his two legs is a single large fish hopping in mid-air as it is caught by the man’s portion of the net.
The second fisherman, who is the most awkwardly posed out of all the three, can be found occupying the very center of the canvas as he takes most of the painting’s space, his right leg solely stretching to the right where the third fisherman can be found. The fisherman is drawn with strange anatomy. His head is pitch-black, almost as if it weren’t there as both his left arm’s shoulder and right arm’s elbow occupy the space where his head was supposed to be. His left appears to be on the inside of the net, besides three fishes on the right while his right leg is outside of the net, extending towards the third fisherman to his right.
The Third Fisherman is the tallest of the trio. Found to the rightmost area of the canvas, the third fisherman’s back is hunched and his egg-shaped head lacks a face and is completely flat. His body is thin and very straight, almost as if he were a lamp post. His two arms are stretched out, forming a triangular space as he stretches out a net in which three, gray, red-eyed fish are trapped. His two bamboo-like legs appear unusually squeezed in a single area as if they’re being squeezed into a single, narrow space by the middle fisherman. Much of the painting’s orange and yellowish light is found in the triangular or pyramidal spaces of the large and wide fishing net, their composition made as if to give the viewer an illusion of 3-D spaces in the flat, oil painting.