Exhibitions

There are very few artists today working on large public monuments, in the tradition of National Artist Guillermo Tolentino. Eduardo Castrillo is, in many ways, Tolentino's heir. Along with National Artist Napoleon Abueva, Castrillo is a forerunner of the all-metal sculpture, using bronze and brass to create works that encapsulate the hopes and dreams of a nation. With over four-decades of work, the artist is known for his ability to create massive public edifices that combine Modernism's aesthetic of the distorted figure with an almost classical allegorical approach to Philippine virtues. Among his most well-known works are the People Power monument along the Camp Aguinaldo section of EDSA, The Pieta in front of Loyala Memorial Park in Paranaque City (a sculpture that is often mistakenly attributed to Abueva) and The Spirit of EDSA monument in the plaza of the RCBC Building along Ayala Avenue in Makati—just outside the Yuchengco Museum.

Since Castrillo is known for his large monuments, it is exceedingly rare that he holds one-man exhibitions of his smaller works—the last exhibition being more than a decade ago. It is fortunate, then, that collectors can finally get a chance to own a Catrillo monument of their own. In his upcoming one-man exhibition at Galerie Joaquin, called The Master: Eduardo Castrillo, more than 20 new works in his traditional brass and more contemporary sculptures of color will be displayed. Utilizing the same techniques that he uses on his monuments, but in a smaller-scale, Eduardo Castrillo gives collectors a unique opportunity to have a Castrillo monument in their own home collection.

The exhibition will open on November 13 at 6:30 PM at Galerie Joaquin, at 371 P. Guevarra Street, Addition Hills, San Juan. For more information, please call (632) 723-9418, or visit www.galeriejoaquin.com. This exhibit is co-presented by EC Art Management Corporation.

Born in 1942 in Sta. Ana in Manila, Castrillo's formative days were spent studying at the old Ateneo campus on Padre Faura and, later, at the Sta. Ana Elementary School and Don Bosco High School School. His father was a master craftsman and instilled on his son a sense of volume that was only possible through sculpture. In his teens, the young Castrillo was already helping his father make the papier mache belens for Christmas festivities.

Little wonder then that Castrillo eventually found himself in the Fine Arts program at the University of Santo Tomas. Not exactly studious when he was younger, Castrillo instead immersed himself in the joys of youth, joining a band called the Eccentrics as their drummer. It was only after he graduated that Castrillo, who until then held a variety of jobs that included elevator attendant and repairing typewriters, got his first notice as a serious artist with the installation of his work The Virgin at La Loma Cemetery and Youth's Cry of Defiance in Fort Santiago in 1966. It is also in the late 60's that he established lifelong friendships with National Artist (for Architecture) Ildefonso Santos, who inspired him to realize his concept of space.

Throughout his succeeding practice, Castrillo continued to experiment with other material while still working on commissions that used his expertise in metals. He also found a political voice, joining the movement against dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 80s. Along the way, he picked up institutional acclaim, including inclusion in first batch of the Cultural Center of the Philippine's Thirteen Artist Award in 1970, and was the Philippine's representative in sculpture to the 1971 Paris Biennial. But perhaps Castrillo's lasting legacy is a landscape dotted with his work—recalling the memorial of architect Christopher Wren in London's St. Paul Cathdral: "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" (Reader, if you seek a monument, look around you.)

There are two series for the exhibition in Galerie Joaquin. The first encompasses Castrillo's skill in working brass. The artist uses a technique he appropriated in jewellery making – also used in gold metalworking by pre-colonial Filipinos – of using and bending metal sheets to form abstracted constructs. The innovation of Eduardo Castrillo is that he can scale this technique to any size—thus disjointed parts are constructed in his Cavite studio and later assembled into the final form. Whereas other sculptors would use molds to shape the metal medium, Castrillo pioneered this technique of using sheets, which also served to make the entire structure lighter and more durable. The abstracted forms he shapes the metal into are also uniquely organic in outline, as opposed to the angular, geometric form of later sculptural practices. This, we have works such as "Roundel," and "Evolute," which resemble a cross between bells and octopi suction cups. The oxidized colorization is similar to his larger monuments—in effect, making these works home versions of these public edifices.

The second series marks a new direction for Castrillo, who is known for using the natural colors of the metals in his works. Called his "Kaleidoscope" series, these works are set in bright, bold colors in powderized paint, using the same tight geometric patterns that the artist is famous for. Works like "Phalank," however, show that geometric patterns still retain a curvature that serves to reflect Castrillo's superior technique.

The exceptional character of this exhibition is that it is exceedingly rare for Castrillo to give one-man shows of smaller works. But these works on display are still of the same technique, concept, and depth of their larger sister works and now is perhaps one of the only times that the general public can experience and appreciate the practice of one of the most gifted sculptural masters of his generation.