The elusive Virgilio Aviado

There is a Filipino painter, Virgilio Aviado, whose trajectory I have been following since the late 1960s, when I first saw his works at a group exhibit, at the Luz Gallery, of then up-and-coming painters like Tiny Nuyda and Ben Cabrera, now Bencab, the National Artist.

I purchased an untitled drawing of an imaginary creature by Virgilio Aviado. I was attracted to that intriguing piece because I could not find its starting point, so fluid and continuous were the lines of that fantasy being, its elongated limbs were seamlessly wrapped around a bulky body. It also had a naughty yet enigmatic smile.