The National Artists of the Philippines

Born to immigrant Chinese parents Vicente Ang and Chin Lim, Ang Kiukok is one of the most vital and dynamic figures who emerged during the 60s and continues to make an impact up to the present. As one of those who came at the heels of the pioneering modernists during that decade, Ang Kiukok blazed a formal and iconographic path of his own through expressionistic works of high visual impact and compelling meaning.

He crystallized in vivid, cubistic figures the terror and angst of the times. Shaped in the furnace of the political turmoil of those times, Ang Kiukok pursued an expression imbued with nationalist fervor and sociological agenda.

Some of his works include: Geometric Landscape (1969); Pieta, which won for him the bronze medal in the 1st International Art Exhibition held in Saigon (1962); and the Seated Figure (1979), auctioned at Sotheby’s in Singapore.

His works can be found in many major art collections, among them the Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Historical Museum of Taipei, and the National Museum in Singapore.

Ang Kiukok died on May 9, 2004

National Artist Guidelines ׀ List of Awardees