Angry and wonderful
Alfonso Ossorio was born in 1916 to wealthy parents Maria Paz Yangco and Miguel Jose Ossorio, who owned a large sugar refinery on the island of Negros in the Philippines. He was given a strict religious upbringing, schooled in the best places money could buy, and later went on to make his way as an artist. Many years later, he was commissioned by his parents to return to the island of Negro and create a mural in the Chapel of St Joseph the Worker at which the refinery labourers worshipped. His mural, depicted below, met with a very mixed reception, with the artist himself saying that people at the time “loathed it”.
Image: t2.gstatic.com
Years later, with the sugar refinery’s fortunes waning, and the chapel in danger of falling into disrepair, it was visited by a journalist from LIFE magazine, who dubbed it ‘the chapel of the angry Christ’, and its fortunes were reborn.
How would you feel looking at this image on a Sunday?
I’d love to look at that image on a Sunday.
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Funny, when I looked at this painting, it didn’t shout ‘angry’ at me at all, it shouted Holy Trinity – God’s hands, the Holy Spirit in the heart of Jesus – and I really really like it. Is it named ‘Angry Jesus’? I could look at it for hours and hours. So alive, so vibrant.
Thanks for your comment. The colours…and the image, really jump out at you, don’t they? You can read an interview with the artist here: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/alfonso-ossorio-interview-5517