MANILA, Philippines ? ?Fabulosa!? said Oscar Wilde. ?One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.?
An exclamatory word, fabulous alludes to its term of origin, fable, from the Latin fabula, meaning ?story or play,? such as ?a legendary story of supernatural happenings? or ?a narration intended to enforce a useful truth.? Thus, fabulous resembles a fable, especially in incredible, marvelous, or exaggerated quality.
This quality is what engages Lydia Velasco in her latest works, which are not a departure from her signature women paintings, but are rather a visual journey into the rich polychromes of figures, fashion and fantasy. Female sexuality, which has always underpinned the art of Velasco, is given free play here in the luxuriance of fabric and the exuberance of design.
Velasco?s fascination for the ornate elaborations of fashion started when, during a trip to New York, she beheld the splendor of the works of Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). A leading exponent of a movement known as Art Nouveau, Klimt brought his passion for decoration to its zenith with his depictions of women in noble portraits and in states of erotic excitement.
Art Nouveau influenced the decorative arts: furniture (Hector Guimard); lamps (Louis Comfort Tiffany); jewelry (Rene Lalique); book design; illustration (Aubrey Beardsley); even architecture, as witness the structures of the Belgian artist Victor Horta and Barcelona artist Antoni Gaudí in his Sagrada Familia Cathedral.
In her recent incarnation of women, Velasco absorbed the decorative outpouring of Klimt, which resulted in a pageant of bodies and spaces animated by a sense of bravura. The overriding compulsion is to conjure a dreamscape of femininity as an experience of splendor and gorgeousness.
Velasco?s women are arrayed in a frieze, caught in gestures that suggest their emotional or psychological state or some physical activity. The hallmark characteristics are an expressionistic attenuation of torsos, limbs and extremities in stylized poses, their flesh and musculature lavished with animated brushwork, and burnished to a gleaming bronze sheen, recalling at times Gauguin?s Tahitian maidens.
Indeed, her past solo exhibitions glory in themes that herald her women?s racial descent and smoldering sexuality: ?Mujer Indigena,? ?Luna Romantica,? ?Gayuma.?
If not in total dishabille, Velasco?s women disport the diaphanous fabric that catches the light of her skin, the fulsomeness of her breasts, and the stretched elongation of her torso. Attire is an instrument of seduction, which the artist wields with confident measure, aware that a woman?s allure is the sublime achievement of her gender.
Decorative panoply
In her ?Fabulosa? paintings, Velasco invokes the commanding decorative panoply of Klimt, flaunting an entire armory and astonishing range of designs: from the mosaic patterns to the throng of geometric, serpentine and floral leitmotifs that rain down the women?s blouses and skirts, transforming them into fields of blooming traceries.
Interestingly, Velasco?s designs accommodate the spectrum of decorative floridities found in jeepneys, karetelas (horse-drawn carriages), and fiestas, imbuing them with a distinct Philippine look. Irradiated with the deeply hued palette of scarlet reds, festive oranges and yellows, gold and russets, her canvases are primed to arrest attention.
?Indayog sa Musika? is a balletic frenzy of gestures as a flame of billowing shawl wildly proclaims the woman. In ?Pulang Tela,? a naked woman sprawled on the ground is also haloed by a raggedly painted drapery. Her whole body is physically sculptural: a female figure that has shed, cocoon-like, every shred of garment. A curling tendril appears in ?Dalangin? as a deliberate Art Nouveau inflection of the arabesque.
Velasco?s paintings invite the viewer?s eyes to wander over these womanly creatures, seemingly aware they were created for man?s adoration and, indeed, arousal. ?Fabulosa? is a newfound theme ? or better yet, a tantalizing spin to Velasco?s inexhaustible depiction of women. The visual slant opens her art to the fascinating subject of clothes and personal adornment as instruments of sexuality.
The show is on view at the Galerie Stephanie, Unit 1B, Park Plaza Bldg., 183 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave., Libis, Quezon City. Tel nos: 709-1488, 216-1423 and 211-4529.
