Mariano "Chito" Madarang

was born in Kiangan, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Philippines in 1937 and died in 2008. Well versed in Visual and plastic arts, he studied at the East-West Center, University of Hawaii, on a John D. Rockfeller III study grant and a Felicing Tirona grant. He was greatly influenced by geometrization of form through transparent layers of color, as taught by Vicente Manansala, one of the Filipino Masters.

Mariano “Chito” Madarang

“Banaue Rice Terraces”

2000

Acrylic on Canvas

25x35in

Mariano Madarang also created semi-surrealistic compositions through detailed drawing and brushwork in pen and ink. In his final years, he painted realistic genre scenes highlighted by layers of color applied in straight bands that evoke the linear patterns of the Banaue rice terraces.

I chose this artwork “Banaue Rice Terraces”, because for over 2,000 years, the high rice fields of the Ifugao have flawlessly  followed the contours of the mountains. The fruit of knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, and the expression of sacred traditions and the delicate social balance, the ethnic Ifugao tribe in the Mountain Provinces helped to create a landscape of great beauty that expresses the harmony between humankind and the environment.