VICTORIOUS
“Well, there’s the anguish of actually making a painting. That’s never easy. People assume that it’s easy, but we all go through our own anguish…I don’t scrape the paint off at the end of the day, but there’s lots of re-painting and over-glazing, and it’s hard and it doesn’t get any easier to paint.”
- Peter Blake, the British pioneer of Pop Art, aged 91.
All artists, regardless of their degree of experience and accomplishment, face obstacles and difficulties specific to the vision they are pursuing Picasso, the renowned titan of 20th-century art, is without a doubt the model; he had to go through different stages and eras in accordance with what his passion and direction required. History clearly demonstrates the effects of the changes and influences that shaped his artistic development.
His 'Pink Period, Blue Period, African-inspired Period, Analytic Cubism, Synthetic Cubism, Surrealism, and the Civil War Period' are all well-known by now. Over 20,000 works of art—an unparalleled and victorious testament to Picasso's genius—emerged from this storm of changes.
Filipino artists also acknowledge the unique issues with form, color, design, and structure that are specific to abstraction, figuration, or representation. The extent of their art is determined by the triumphs extracted from their private and intimate experiences of defeat, as evidenced by the numerous torn pieces of paper and numerous painted-over canvases that are now hidden from the public eye. From the fortuitous selection of the ideal hue that gives the painting coherence to the abrupt and radical change in style and subject matter, victories can come in both small and large packages. These chosen Filipino artists have all triumphed over their own personal artistic struggles.
-CID REYES
A graduate of De La Salle University, Cid Reyes studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Art in Rome, Italy, and art history at the City Lit Institute in London, England. In all, he has authored or co-authored over 40 art books. He co-authored "TANAW: The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Art Collection" and "The Life and Art of Lee Aguinaldo." Both were winners of the Alfonso T. Ongpin Prize for Best Book on Art. His book "MVP: The Man and His Art" won a Gold Trophy in the 2021 Stevie International Business Awards. As an artist, Cid Reyes has held 20 solo exhibitions.
