Jose Tence Ruiz's Topless Victorian
Kenneth Irvin N. Garcia
Fine Arts
Topless Victorian by Jose Tence Ruiz
This painting by Jose Tence Ruiz was made in 2009 using oil on canvas. The composition features a woman, halfnaked and wearing a gown made up of native materials and large quantities of cloth. She stands over the piles of shoes and carries over her head an inverted vehicle. According to the tour guide in the museum, the thing that she carries is a wrecked S.U.V. As seen in the painting, one can say that the woman is not conventionally beautiful. She is not the person who usually graces the covers of magazines or stars in TV commercials. She seems to be a simple native Filipina- aboriginal, dark-skinned, and exotic, and she actually resembles one of our sister Aetas.
Nonetheless, there is something about her that entices the viewers. The woman has that particular charm and mystery that keeps the viewers staring at her. It’s a mystery and a puzzle to truly comprehend why a skinny woman like her carries a wrecked vehicle over her head and why she is surrounded by a lot of shoes. This puzzling and mysterious quality actually adds effect to the painting.
Basically, two colors are observed in the painting: black in its varying tints (though black is not really a color, technically speaking) seen in her entire body, garment, the shoes surrounding her, and the wrecked vehicle; and orange (a warm color) which fills the background of the woman and puts emphasis on her. Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines which form the slender body of the woman are also found in the painting and these connote calmness, stability, and action respectively. Proportion and texture are applied to the woman’s native gown. The gown which wraps the lower half of her body is big for her skinny and slim physique. It is as if the gown is made up of great piles of clothing and native materials that go complementarily with her culture. Moreover, the texture applied to her gown draws the viewers’ attention
Fine Arts
Topless Victorian by Jose Tence Ruiz
This painting by Jose Tence Ruiz was made in 2009 using oil on canvas. The composition features a woman, halfnaked and wearing a gown made up of native materials and large quantities of cloth. She stands over the piles of shoes and carries over her head an inverted vehicle. According to the tour guide in the museum, the thing that she carries is a wrecked S.U.V. As seen in the painting, one can say that the woman is not conventionally beautiful. She is not the person who usually graces the covers of magazines or stars in TV commercials. She seems to be a simple native Filipina- aboriginal, dark-skinned, and exotic, and she actually resembles one of our sister Aetas.
Nonetheless, there is something about her that entices the viewers. The woman has that particular charm and mystery that keeps the viewers staring at her. It’s a mystery and a puzzle to truly comprehend why a skinny woman like her carries a wrecked vehicle over her head and why she is surrounded by a lot of shoes. This puzzling and mysterious quality actually adds effect to the painting.
Basically, two colors are observed in the painting: black in its varying tints (though black is not really a color, technically speaking) seen in her entire body, garment, the shoes surrounding her, and the wrecked vehicle; and orange (a warm color) which fills the background of the woman and puts emphasis on her. Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines which form the slender body of the woman are also found in the painting and these connote calmness, stability, and action respectively. Proportion and texture are applied to the woman’s native gown. The gown which wraps the lower half of her body is big for her skinny and slim physique. It is as if the gown is made up of great piles of clothing and native materials that go complementarily with her culture. Moreover, the texture applied to her gown draws the viewers’ attention