IN MEMORIAM:
LEONILO "NEIL" DOLORICON
“My art activism and activist art are life-long struggles to make life for myself and many others free and alive on paper, canvas, print, as well as in the real humane world.”
- Neil Doloricon
At first, this note bid condolences to the family and friends of the late great visual artist, Professor Leonilo "Neil" Doloricon.
According to an announcement by his daughter Kat Doloricon on Friday Morning (July 16), Doloricon died in a hospital at past 3:00 AM. He was 65 years old.
At the time of his death, Doloricon served as a professor of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, which he served as dean from 1998 to 2001. He also chaired the Committee on Arts and Humanities at the Commission on Higher Education.
Aside from the academe, Doloricon also became a long-term editorial cartoonist of several newspapers, including People's Journal, the Manila Times, and Malaya Business Insight. He even became managing editor and occasionally, as a cartoonist of alternative newspaper Pinoy Weekly.
His artworks also featured in various museums and galleries, such as the "Neil Doloricon -Fundamental and Digital exhibit" in Makati City in 2013 and "Lupa: Struggle For Land" at the Jorge B. Vargas Museum in 2014. Last 2017, the National Museum also held his solo exhibition entitled "A Gift to the Nation", featuring 50 limited edition prints that were donated to the museum and took up to three decades to complete since 1987.
From his feats and contributions in the field of visual arts, he was given citations such as the "Gawad Para sa Sining Biswal" from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and holder of the Fernando Amorsolo and Guillermo Tolentino Professorial Chairs in the UP College of Fine Arts. UP Artist Circle, from which Doloricon was part of from 1974, described him as "one of the pillars of social realism in the Philippine art scene and was popular for his paintings, murals, and relief prints that depicted the struggles of the masses."
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True to his commitment in serving the folk, Doloricon's work showed how art can be a weapon against oppression and a tool in seeking truth from facts, especially in a time of disquiet and rage.
That from his themes and depictions of people and its daily doings, he showed to the folk an art that serves the people and community, all in pursuit of freedom and justice for the oppressed and exploited. Call it "Hardcore", but from its depictions resonate what really comes from the people, and its struggle for land, jobs, an end for dehumanisation, the need for social and economic justice, an end to militarisation especially in rural areas, everything that the order obviously shuns in favour of things "idyllic" and "touristish", no matter how they recognise Doloricon's feats as an artist both in the Philippines and in abroad.
And despite threats as an activist employing art as a weapon of social change, Doloricon's nationalistic act shows that to be a nationalist is not some kind of a dinner party if not an idyllic affair, it is about sharing hardships and joys, a continuous forge, till, fight for the future that is to come.
Need not to explain further. But perhaps, amidst mourning and expression of condolences, expect those who chose to follow his direction and make art, culture, that’s for the people, full of fervour and dynamism as what his art shows.
NEIL DOLORICON, ¡Presente!
To cap this note, here's a video from Erehwon art centre featuring his art.