Meet Ang Kiukok, the artist from Davao

Once upon a time in old Davao, there lived a Chinese merchant named Ang Sym and a rich land­owner-lawyer named Don Vicente Hizon. They were busi­ness friends. Such good friends were they that when Ang Sym’s son Ang Pang was born, Don Vicente naturally became his godfather. But alas, old Ang Sym had to return to China when the boy was only 16, so he left the care of his son to his friend.

So it came to pass Panga, the boy, married and had children of his own. He ran a sari-sari store in the quaint fishing village of Sasa while Don Vicente tended to his law practice and managed his 300-hectare tobacco plantation in the adjacent village of Pampan­ga. But the bond between god­father and godson never waned. Almost like a ritual, Don Vicente would drop by his godson’s store to pass the time away. More often, he would go there just to eat “lugaw” (a favo­rite Chinese rice meal) which Panga deliciously prepared for him. On these occasions, the artist from Davao emerged.

Ang Kiukok, grandson of his good friend, and son of his god­son, would take a pad of paper, a stick of charcoal and would quietly sketch Don Vicente’s portrait. Front view, side view. Again and again he sketched. Often times, Don Vicente inquired. “Let’s see what the young painter is doing to­day?” Again he would draw, rough sketches by a boy of twelve, then thirteen, then four­teen until he left for Manila to study at the big university. Each drawing he gave to his sitter, and Don Vicente, pleased with the boy’s remarkable ability, proudly pasted all these drawings on the walls of his farmhouse by the sea.

Today, the farmhouse is gone, so are the drawings. Where the farmhouse once stood, it is now Davao In­sular Hotel. Where once the child’s drawings decorated the farmhouse walls, a huge mural now decorates the hotel. It is also the only original artwork at the hotel and Ang Kiukok did this mural, by a twist of fate, in 1961. Whether or not Fernando Zobel, who built the hotel, knew about the boy’s story, it is, however, rather un­canny for Zobel to have commissioned a 30- year-old painter only because he was Davao-born.

Ang Kiukok, now a celebrated painter of national and interna­tional fame, has exhibited his works in Manila and abroad, con­tinuously since 1954. He has re­ceived numerous awards and was cited in 1976-78 as an outstanding citizen. His works hang in the permanent collections of the Phi­lippine National Museum, National Historical Museum in Taipei, National Museum in Sing­apore, the Ayala Corporation to name but a few. It is impossible to begin mentioning about his works in private collec­tions for the list is rather long.