Augusto Albor: The Art of Attentiveness

by Karl-Heinz Stockheim | The Philippines’ Honorary Consul General for North Rhine Westphaliam Germany (taken from Immaterial c. 2010)

To do justice to the work of the artist Augusto Albor, it is necessary to let people speak who have known him for years and have dealt themselves intensively with his oeuvre. The late Raymundo Albano, curator of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, described the art’s early phase as being preoccupied with articulating a surface of great attentiveness while his current interest is directed towards the metaphysical.

Mischa Volgtli describes the effect this has. The viewer, he says, is completely absorbed by this electrifying yet so harmonious art. His influence, according to Cesare Syjuco, is immeasurable even on artists twice his age. National artist Arturo Luz completes this acclaim with succinct statement that: “Augusto Albor is quite simply the best that the Philippines has to offer.”

In the last 40 years, Augusto Albor’s art has been shown in dozens of individual and group exhibitions. I have had the honor to launch a presentation of his art in Germany. On top of that, his works have traveled to Hong Kong, New Delhi, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Beijing, Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur…

Numerous national and international distinctions, and awards are a evidence of the recognition of Albor’s art. Augusto Albor is far more modest than the praise which the critics bring him.