About the Hocus Paintings
HOCUS is an acronym of the surnames of Saul Hofileña Jr., the intellectual author of the thought-provoking collection, and Guy Custodio who collaborated by painting Hofileña’s visions of Philippine colonial history. In the preface to the HOCUS III (Juicio Final) book Custodio wrote, “… I took instructions from Saul on how a painting should be done, the subject of each painting, the color schemes and all other matters that needed to be done, in order to transform paint and canvas or wood into a HOCUS painting.”
Each HOCUS painting is signed with an icon, Hofileña’s brainchild which he calls Anghel de Cuyacuy. The Filipino angel is seated on a bench, jiggling a leg nonchalantly (a typical Pinoy mannerism) while reading a book. He is an angel ready to battle ignorance and superstition, as well as Satan’s evil minions, according to Hofileña.
HOCUS enjoyed two hugely successful six-month exhibitions on April 18, 2017 to October 29, 2017 and September 15, 2019 to March 15, 2020. Six large paintings from HOCUS I are on permanent display at the East Wing Hallway Gallery at the 4th floor of the National Museum of Fine Arts which includes the thought provoking “La pesadilla” (The Nightmare). Also permanently exhibited along the Second Floor Northeast Hallway Gallery at the National Museum of Anthropology are five HOCUS paintings that were part of the Quadricula (HOCUS II) exhibition.
Gemma Cruz Araneta
Curator, Hocus I and Quadricula
