It was in February 2016 that an exhibit of Alfonso Ossorio’s art was shown for the first time, coinciding with what would have been the artist’s 100th birth year. This acquisition of Ossorio’s Victorias Drawings, done while the artist was at work on the mural The Last Judgement, was a milestone for Leon Gallery. The name Alfonso Ossorio was hardly known in the Philippine art world, apart from his floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall 126 sqm work at the Victorias Milling Corp chapel in Negros Occidental, now declared an Important Cultural Treasure,
Alfonso was the son of Don Miguel Ossorio, a wealthy Spanish-American businessman, and Maria Paz Yangco, daughter of a Chinese-Filipino family that owned a massive shipping commercial enterprise. Together, they owned the Victorias Milling Company, one of the largest and most successful sugar mills of pre-war Philippines.
Alfonso Ossorio was better known in New York where he lived for many years. But even then, his name was more often than not, associated with Jackson Pollock, one of the founders of the art movement, Abstract Expressionism, in New York.
In 2014, Rogue Magazine published the article King of the Creeks, an extensively researched piece on the life of Ossorio. The “Creeks” was a wealthy area in East Hampton, New York, where Ossorio resided alongside other rich and famous personages.
The colorful life led by Ossorio and his partner, Ted Dragon, drew interest to the artist and his work, along with the background stories. Central to his work was the Victorias chapel mural whose real title was The Last Judgement, but which came to be known as The Angry Christ because of the fierce expression on Christ’s face that centrally dominated the mural.
Ossorio fearlessly churned out art work in various genres, each done with technical and scholarly precision, using only the best art materials.
This was one artist who was far from starving, after all. In fact, he financially helped his good friend, Jackson Pollock.
Ossorio’s art styles varied over time. In The Magnificent September Auction 2026 at Leon Gallery on Sept. 12, 2026, three genres of Ossorio’s works will go on the block.
Metal plate with the etched design of the famous Victorias church mural ‘The Angry Christ’
One of his early art styles was the wax-resist technique which Ossorio developed during this 10-month stay in Victorias working on the church mural commissioned by his family. Work on the mural occupied him during the day. In the evening, he filled his time experimenting with the wax-resist technique, which he first encountered with Pollock. At that time, his brother Frederick was managing the sugar mill, but had gone to New York to get married. Ossorio, awaiting the arrival of the art materials his brother would bring, used the watercolors he had brought home earlier and the bits of candle wax and candles he found in the house. He used his brother’s stationery for paper.
The unplanned figures applied in wax on paper, then color-washed in either watercolor or goache, a water-based medium, created a contradiction in materials where the color was absorbed by the unwaxed portions of the paper, leaving spare line wax figures. The overall effect was an interesting abstraction that prompted the thought-provoking titles.
By the time his work was done in Victorias, he had amassed a collection of over 300 wax-resist paintings. He sent these paintings to his friend, French artist Jean Dubuffet, whose style was known as “Art brut.” The latter compiled Ossorio’s work and published a book, Peintures Initiatiques D’Alfonso Ossorio.
One of those paintings will be in the auction, titled Seated Male (Face in Torso), a personal favorite which Ossosrio kept for himself and his long-time partner, Ted Dragon. It was hung in their bedroom.
Ossorio’s spirituality reflected more often than not in his body of work. One art genre he swung to was what other artists referred to as assemblages. Ossorio referred to this art of putting found objects together as “congregations,” which in religious terms meant a gathering of people in worship.
Sidrach, Misach, and Abednego (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), the second piece up for auction, is a collection of crystal beads, ophthalmologist’s glass eyes, shells, beads, and other shiny objects. Ossorio’s congregations, unlike assemblages, were not “ found” nor sought-after objects, but rather purposefully chosen and purchased ones. The three men represented in this piece refer to the prophet Daniel’s three companions in his exile in Babylon, sentenced to burn in a fiery furnace for their refusal to worship the golden statue as ordered by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Instead of burning, they were seen walking through the fire accompanied by an unknown fourth person, believed to be an angel. Because of their miraculous escape from the fire, their death sentence was nullified by the king himself.
‘Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’ is a collection of crystal beads, ophthalmologist’s glass eyes, shells, beads, and other shiny objects in what Ossorio called a ‘congregation.’
A metal plate with the etched design of the Victorias church mural is the third art piece at Leon Gallery. Although this was found in the residence of Ossorio, there is no evidence of where or how it was used. Guesswork has it that it may have been used as an engraving plate. Nonetheless, it must have been a meaningful object for it to have been kept by the Ossorio family.
Since the first Ossorio exhibit hosted by Leon Gallery, the curiosity surrounding Ossorio’s range of work has not diminished, owing to the varied, unique, and intelligent processes the artist has undertaken to make his work indeed one-of-a-kind. Rarities as these are simply art treasures, and whoever can pay the right price is more than lucky to own one.
‘The Magnificent September Auction 2026’ happens at Leon Gallery on Sept. 12, 2026, 2 pm.
