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SHING KIT DY MACATINGIN
Biographical Information

Shing Kit Dy Macatingin (April 7, 1959), dubbed as the ‘Sighted Blind Man of the Filipino Art’, is a famous and influential Chinese-Filipino abstract expressionist painter in the Philippines. He is known for using bold and vibrant colors with his unique drip style in painting—splashing and pouring any liquid material from all angles of a horizontal surface. Despite him being blind, he had created over 100 artworks that are now exhibited in major museums and collections across the Philippines. His most notable artwork entitled ‘Sumabog Na’ can be viewed in the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In 1995, Macatingin was given the Preeminent Local Artist of the Year award by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Early Life and Education

Macatingin was born and grew up in Quezon City, Manila. He was the first of three children of Hidalgo Macatingin and Barbara Dy. In their Chinese-Filipino household, they have lived together as an upper-class family. Even then, his father, Hidalgo Macatingin, insisted on living a frugal lifestyle in order to save money. His mother, Barbara Dy, served as his influence on being compassionate since she was very hands-on with Shing Kit and his siblings, Lhaki Matta and Mhay Muttha, while they were growing up. With his father being a well-renowned artist during the early 1930s, Shing Kit has always viewed him as his prime inspiration. At a young age, he started creating artworks through landscape painting. Having to grow up in an urban setting, he always wanted to capture and represent the beauty of nature through his paintings which served as permanent photographs of the places that he has seen. In 1978, he earned his bachelor degree in Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman campus. On August 26, 1981, while he was still completing his masteral degree in Fine Arts in the same University, he and his father went on a trip to Baguio to go to an art exhibit that was hosted by the University of the Philippines Baguio. They rode a bus and on the way to their destination, the vehicle was hit by a garbage truck, crashing with the bus. Among the many casualties brought about by this event, Shing Kit and his father were two of the 12 survivors. They, together with the other passengers and drivers of both the bus and truck, were rushed to the hospital to which they found a comatosed Shing Kit due to internal bleeding and hemorrhage. After 20 days, Shing Kit became conscious at the expense of his sight where he was diagnosed with optic nerve damage, leading to his permanent blindness. After regaining strength and consciousness, Hidalgo felt guilt, since he felt responsible for what happened to Shing Kit. Due to this, he went into hiding which angered Shing Kit because this was the point in his life where he needed him the most. Many thought that this incident would have put a stop to Macatingin’s career. He withdrew from studying his masteral degree in UP but his passion for painting did nit falter. Two years after the accident, Macatingin started to paint again but not with the same style he used. He shifted from a landscape painter to an abstract expressionist which, at that time, did not gain most of the approval of the public and some of the critics.

Career

Before being handicapped, a few of the artworks he painted as a child were displayed inside his home with the help of his mother. His unfortunate blindness then allowed him to transform his fine landscape art into expressionist abstract art. His most notable artwork was produced not long after the accident that took his sight from him. This painting entitled ‘Sumabog Na’ caught the eyes of the public and the critics. He gained praises from the public and critics that once ridiculed him because of his new developed creation process. According to Macatingin, his artwork ‘Sumabog Na’ was produced because of his anger towards his father. The canvass was originally painted with a view of the ocean. The streaks of rough red paint represented his long bottled anger for his father. One of his landscape artworks "View in Mount Makiling" was first presented in Silahis Arts and Artifacts (1987). A selection of Macatingin’s works are held by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Museum of Fine Arts, and The Vargas Museum—located inside the University of the Philippines Diliman campus.

Style and Technique

Shing Khit is well known for his use of emotional abstract art, in which he expresses himself through the medium of painting. The distinctive features of his artworks are easily noticed in his painting entitled ‘Sumabog Na’. The rough red streaks of paint along with darker background shades that contrast with the white canvas illustrates his frustration from his loss of sight, and the abrupt change from his bright career as a prolific landscape painter. It has also been speculated that the vague imagery employed in his works can not only be attributed to his blindness, rather it was also of Shing Kit’s own volition. His works as an abstract artist can be seen as a complete opposite to the works he created when he still had his sight.

Critical Evaluations

Despite the significant change of style in his works, the public’s reception of Macatingin as an abstract painter was largely positive. Many have found it admirable that he continued to practice and present his craft, despite the depictions of anguish that exude from his paintings. Macatingin is also commonly likened to Vincent van Gogh, as critics refer to him as an example of a “tortured artist”. This pertains to artists whose suffering is evident in their works, which is then viewed by people through a romanticized viewpoint. Macatingin’s style of painting—staining into raw canvas—was adapted by many aspiring and famous Filipino artists like Henry Ruiz and Rolando de Ocampo. It was said that they were influenced by Macatingin’s process of creation rather than the look of his artworks.