Reclusive Filipino-Chinese sculptor Ting Ping Lay shared his exquisite collection in a rare exhibition at the Yuchengco Museum. The exhibit, entitled Ting Ping Lay: Celebrating Figure & Form, opened last March and will run until May 31 this year. It features his collection of small- and medium-sized freestanding works in terracotta, cast bronze, and plaster of Paris, as well as marble and wood reliefs to the public.
Ting Ping Lay hails from Fujian, China and took his art studies at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). Ting traces his artistic lineage from his teacher and mentor, the Italian master sculptor Francesco Riccardo Monti, who was the first to teach sculpture at UST from 1948 to 1958.
Ting graduated from his class with honors and, more appropriately, the first prize in sculpture. He won several medals for his sculptural works in the Philippine National Art exhibition from 1960 and 1961, establishing himself as a semi-abstractionist with laborers and ordinary folks as his favorite subjects. Later on, he focused on the female form in countless poses of repose and exultation.
As a major presentation of the Yuchengco Museum under its Sino-Filipino Expressions series of exhibitions and programs, this collection celebrates the sculptor’s lyrical forms revealing facets of the emotions of the various subjects.
“Some writers have categorized Ting as an expressionist, influenced by the German school. But his body of works seems to point another way,” comment Jeannie Javelosa, curator of the Yuchengco Museum.
“Ting’s forms are devoid of the fierceness, rawness, and angst that define German expressionism. His works—although small exquisite heartfelt pieces, either in painted plaster of Paris, terracotta, clay, or cast bronze—reflect depth in their simplest most gentle selves. Here, we see his affinity with lyrical modernists in so far as to his simplification of the human form.”
The collection, continued Javelosa, celebrates the sculptor’s lyrical forms revealing facets of the emotions of the various subjects. “By presenting the simple essentials, he directs the viewer to the appreciation of the complex interaction of the medium, of the heart, and of the spirit.”
The Yuchengco Museum is located at the RCBC Plaza, corner Ayala and Sen. Gil Puyat Avenues, Makati City. Tel. (632) 889-1234.
