Emilio aguilar cruz biography

EMILIO AGUILAR CRUZ

( – )

Journalist, Art Critic, Painter and Diplomat

Artist, writer, editor, art critic, diplomat, and nationalist, Emilio Aguilar Cruz was born on June 5, in Magalang, a town at the foot of Mount Arayat, the majestic mountain on theplains of Pampanga which became his inspiration for many of his essays and paintings.

He had been drawing and painting constantly since he was seven, prompting his parents to hire a private tutor to teach him how to draw. As a young boy, he also took up music lessons, but he had to give this up because it was presumed that he would be a painter in the family.

Aguilar Cruz entered the College of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines during the prewaryears but quit after a year because, according to him, he “was confined to paint stuffed animals and ketchup bottles.” Impatient to paint figures and landscapes of Mt.

Arayat and Manila Bay, instead, he regarded his format art instruction as a course on “how not to paint.”