Lot description
Alfonso Ossorio (1916 - 1990) #12: '59 signed and dated 1959 (verso) oil, white lead impasto on wood 48" x 5" (122 cm x 13 cm) PROVENANCE First purchased directly from the artist through the Betty Parsons Gallery and then acquired from the previous owner in 1981 EXHIBITED León Gallery, Alfonso Ossorio (1916 - 1990): Afflictions of Glory, Makati City, February 5 - 22, 2016 LITERATURE Guerrero Nakpil, Lisa et al. Alfonso Ossorio (1916 - 1990): Afflictions of Glory. León Gallery. Makati City. p. 65 For Alfonso Ossorio, the choice of the word “congregations” had religious resonance, his wild, weird and wonderful aggrupations were intended to be like a flock of the faithful, bound together in a single act of worship. In many ways, they were the sum total of his experiences as an artist, dating from his early years exploring primitive art at Harvard, his exposure to Celtic iconography, even the Filipino folk references in his St. Joseph the Worker murals, and the experimentalist perspectives of Abstract Expressionism; even his interactions with the mosaic tables create by Lee Krasner, Pollock’s widow, would figure into these works. For him, “congregations” were the three-dimensional progression of his earlier works. “There was no way of stirring things up enough by doing it with traditional means,” exclaimed Ossorio to one interviewer. This series returned Ossorio to his surrealist roots (although Ossorio would refuse to be be pigeonholed by that term), utilising a variety of “sought” objects (versus “found”). #12:'59 foreshadows his “Congregations” in full bloom, a protoype of the works he would show in 1961, when he participated in the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit, “The Art of Assemblage.” His other term for these obsessive treatments were “horror vacui” (the fear of empty spaces), filling like his good friend Pollock the “canvases” end to end, tampering with traditional vanishing points, breaking all the rules, and building them up again. He sought new materials and new effects. It was to become the style Ossorio for which would be best known (at least to a new generation of critics and collectors. (Lisa Guerrero Nakpil)
