Relentless Explorers Albor and Bargielska in Mid-stream
Relentless Explorers
Albor and Bargielska in Mid-stream
By Cesare A.X. Syjuco
Published in: The Manila Times, July 22, 1987
I FIRST heard of Augusto Albor in the mid-70's. Even then he was a rising young star in the artistic firmament, the new darling of the local cognoscenti, a very important artist in the making. Arturo Luz, who was king of the woods in those days, was said to have referred to Albor as his "heir-apparent," even as the younger painter’s works filled the growing void in what seemed to be an endless string of towering edifices sprouting along the reclamation area and beyond. When Albor was awarded the coveted AAP Grand Prize in 1977, his destiny had become doubly assured.
I did not meet Gus Albor until 1983, and then of all places, at the opening of my own exhibit at the old Sining Kamalig on Taft Avenue. Lee Aguinaldo had brought him over, and although Gus was only five years my senior, I must say that I was absolutely thrilled to make his acquaintance. He told me that he had loved the poems that I had read at Virgie Moreno’s cafe a few months before, and at the risk of sounding trite, I was tickled to the bone. As the afternoon wore on, I was even more delighted to find him a disarmingly uncomplicated person.
A few weeks later, Gus arranged for me to meet his wife Teresa Bargielska. An American expat living in Manila, she too had a sterling reputation as a daring installational artist and experimental painter. The three of us spent the evening talking about poetry, oddly enough, and we immediately became fast friends.
In the months that followed before their departure for India in late 1985, I had the privilege to work closely with both Gus and Teresa. Their combined creative energy and investigative knack were contagious throughout this brief association. Other “serious” painters in the country had always seemed to avoid controversial new exploits like the plague, but the Albors were relentless explorers, consistently up front where the stakes were highest.
Seeing them again over dinner —during their current three-week visit to Manila—I felt certain that the lingering void brought on by their absence would remain unfilled until they had permanently returned to us. Knowing this, it was both immensely pleasurable and not a little sad to hear them talk of their life abroad.
In their converted farmhouse some 20 minutes from downtown Delhi, Gus continues to work as diligently on his art, even while imbibing the spirit of contemporary India in its lush colorations and traditional geometric motifs. The mystical quality of Indian life would seem at once tailor-made for this young master of the ephemeral, and the Delhi audience has been unusually receptive to his work. But he craves for the Philippines above all else, and thinks constantly of his small stead on the slopes of Mount Mayon. Augusto Albor has always been a sensitive artist compelled by a strong sense of home and heritage, and the longing clearly shows in his unguarded lapses into melancholy. He had fought for tickets home when the February Revolution was brewing, and the “Ceasefire” theme of his latest exhibit at the Dhoomi Gallery speaks of his abiding concern for local developments.
Bargielska, on the other hand, reveals in the wealth of readily-available raw material that India has to offer. Her yen for installations knows no geographic bounds, and her own most recent exhibition in Delhi saw her making radical use of hefty timber scaffoldings, fired metal plates, and a colorful spectrum of powdered pigment hurled arbitrarily onto sprawling adhesive surfaces. But she, too, thinks of Manila with fondness, and talks with excitement of bringing her Delhi works “home.”
Both Gus and Teresa are saddened by local art’s current plight, and deeply regret what they perceive to be the current administration's lack of support for matters of cultural significance. Because of this, they feel, hardly anything has changed for the better in the almost two years that they have been away.
Their immediate plans will see Gus staging other shows in India, and probably a comprehensive solo exhibit of his latest works at Pinaglabanan Galleries early next year. Both Albor and Bargielska will be back in August 1988, “most likely for good.” And the long wait will almost certainly be worth our while.
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Cesare A.X. Syjuco, “Relentless Explorers Albor and Bargielska in Mid-stream” (page 1 of 1), The Manila Times, July 22, 1987
