(Dream: Juan’s Twelfth Vision) / 1987 / Oil on canvas / 183 x 122 cm / Artist: Roy Veneracion / National Museum of the Philippines collection

Veneracion alternates between abstract and figurative with equal competence and conviction. His figurative works, often in mural scale, deal with historical themes, as in this painting with allusions to the Marcos period.

Deviating from the traditional realist approach to historical painting, this work is surrealist with a haunting dreamlike quality; it combines recognizable public figures with symbols, such as the monster robot signifying militarism and a beautiful nude woman signifying the quest for identity. Within the stage-like pictorial space, the artist brings together the dramatis personae, although thinly disguised, of the historical conjuncture that led to the EDSA uprising: Marcos, Cardinal Sin, the war robot, and a predatory skeletal female figure in mestiza dress. At the center is a Filipino family group, noble and of a vulnerable innocence and purity, while on the left sits a beautiful nude who contemplates herself before a mirror. The crossed flags of the United States and the Philippines seem to be given equal weights, but the Philippine flag points to the side of the Filipino family and the symbol of national identity, while the American flag falls on the side of the threatening figures, thus implying their links to American interests. Abstract elements of texture and tone add richness to the painting.