Manila Art 09

Asia's Latest Contemporary Art Fair

Manila Art 09

In this commemorative issue for the Manila Art 09, Contemporary Art Philippines puts together a guide to the leading art galleries in the Philippines and the Asian region for art collectors and enthusiasts.

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Northern Light

National artist Bencab’s labor of love opens as Baguio’s newest arts beacon and sets a fine example of a modern museum

By Jack Teotico

Northern Light

On a balmy evening when the Moon was in Aries, signaling energy, forcefulness and independence, and on a night when the Moon and Venus danced, the BenCab Museum opened its doors to the world.

Launching the museum on February 27, 2009 was an auspicious choice. According to NASA, Venus was then at its maximum brightness with a magnitude of 4.6. Venus astrologically symbolizes the goddess of beauty and love, and is purportedly an inspirer of artistic talents. The Moon, on the other hand, is a divine nurturing force, representing security and safety, and urging expression of oneʼs deepest feelings. As the two combine in the night sky, emotions and sensibilities can only burst forth in a fountain of creativity.

The museum opening was the culmination of two years of unrelenting work and effort. It’s been a good eight years since National Artist for Visual Arts Benedicto Cabrera, BenCab to us all, was singularly guided by a vision and an enduring goal to buy a four-hectare property. His lifelong dream was to put up a place where he could house his collection of favorite artworks and artifacts. He began scouting around for an architect. National Historical Institute head Ambeth Ocampo (yes, the ones who had the Rizal ancestral home painted green) heard about Ben’s search and informed him about an architect named Raymund Sarmiento, who was married to Ocampo’s younger sister, Anna. Sarmiento had done work for (National Artist) Leandro V. Locsin and partners for some ten years, and was then based in Manila doing private practice. He submitted
architectural designs and concepts for the museum based on BenCab’s ideas and needs for the proposed building. According to Sarmiento, BenCab’s interest is in “open planning and he wanted to take full advantage of the site conditions (i.e., natural contours of the site, natural lighting, cross ventilations, among others).” Today, Sarmiento works in Hong Kong for Hirsch Bedner Associates, the Sta. Monica-based firm. BenCab liked his ideas. Ocampo’s sister is an architect as well, while his dad is a structural engineer. Trips to Baguio by the Ocampos and Sarmiento became animated brainstorming and design sessions. Work started in May 2007 for the 1,200-square meter, four storey museum.

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The Order of the National Artists

Building the nation's hall of artistic immortals

by Reuben Ramas Cañete

Detail of "Planting of the First Cross” by Vicente Manansala
Courtesy of the National Museum

The Order of the National Artists

On April 27, 1972, then-President Ferdinand E. Marcos issued Proclamation No. 1001 declaring the recently deceased Fernando Amorsolo as the first National Artist, for “having defined and perpetuated a distinct element of the nation’s artistic and cultural heritage and won universal acclaim for our country and people.” This first presidential proclamation would start a unique trend in Southeast Asian art, in which a republican government creates an elite order of distinction for its most revered and senior artists, the National Artists Award, which was aimed to give appropriate recognition and prestige to Filipinos who have distinguished themselves and made outstanding contributions to Philippine arts and letters. Subsequently, Proclamation No. 1144 dated May 15, 1973 named the Board of Trustees of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) as the National Artist Awards Committee. In addition, Presidential Decree No. 208 issued on June 7, 1973 reiterated the mandate of CCP to administer the National Artist Awards as well as the privileges and honors to National Artists.

After the establishment of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) under Republic Act No. 7356 dated April 2, 1992, this agency was given broad responsibilities over the development and promotion of the Filipino national culture and the arts, including awards to persons who have significantly contributed to the development and promotion of Philippine culture and the arts. The task of selecting and funding for the National Artists thus became a joint initiative between the CCP and NCCA Board of Trustees. Recently, Executive Order No. 236, issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and dated September 19, 2003, otherwise known as the Honors Code of the Philippines, conferred additional prestige on the National Artist Award by raising it to the level of a Cultural Order, fourth in precedence among the orders and decorations that comprise the Honors of the Philippines, and equal in rank to the Order of National Scientists and the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (Order of National Traditional Artists). The National Artist Award was thereby renamed the Order of National Artists (Orden ng mga Pambansang Alagad ng Sining). The award is currently given once every three years.

Fernando Amorsolo’s “Portrait of Paul V. McNutt”,
1944, oil on canvas, 101 x 76 cm.

The Order of National Artists aims to recognize Filipino artists who have made significant contributions to the cultural heritage of the country; Filipino artistic accomplishment at its highest level and to promote creative expression as significant to the development of a national cultural identity; and Filipino artists who have dedicated their lives to their works to forge new paths and directions for future generations of Filipino artists. The NCCA plans, organizes, and implements the Order of National Artists in coordination with the CCP. Both agencies run a National Artist Secretariat which undertakes the planning and implementation of the awards; dissemination of information; receive, screen and process nominations; and search for other qualified nominees. The NCCA’s Executive Director heads the National Artist Secretariat with three representatives each from NCCA and CCP as members, which commissions art experts to form a Special Research Group who shall verify information submitted on nominees, and provide essential data. They shall be selected for their specialization and familiarity with the works and accomplishments of nominated artists.

During the period of nomination for National Artist, the Special Research Group screens all potential nominees after a public call for the submission of nominations is made, and forwards or recommends these nominees to a National Artist Council of Peers. This Council is tasked to screen nominees and recommend to the NCCA and CCP Boards the candidates for the Order of National Artists. The Council is composed of a maximum of five members each of the eight areas/disciplines recognized by the body (visual arts, theatre, music, dance, literature, film, broadcast arts, and architecture and allied arts), and are selected based on their being highly regarded peers, scholars (including cultural philosophers and historians), academicians, researchers, art critics, other knowledgeable individuals. The living National Artists automatically become members in addition to the forty selected members.

Cesar Legaspi’s “Mother and Child”, 1954, oil on wood, 61 x 32.4 cm.
From The Crucible Workshop’s Art Philippines by Juan T. Gatbonton.

The full Council constitutes the first deliberation panel, which is intra-disciplinary. The panelists are then grouped according to their respective fields of expertise or discipline to shortlist the nominees in their disciplines or categories for presentation to the second deliberation panel. This second deliberation panel is composed of a different set of experts from the first deliberation panel (two experts each of the eight areas/disciplines) then convenes a plenary session to deliberate on the shortlisted nominees. The achievements of each shortlisted nominee shall be presented during the second deliberation by one designated member of the Council of Peers. The recommendations from the second deliberation panel of the Council of Peers are presented to the joint Boards of NCCA and CCP for final selection, by which time a maximum of two candidates per area/discipline would have been chosen. The list of final honorees (usually one per area/discipline) chosen by the combined CCP-NCCA Boards is then submitted to the President of the Philippines for confirmation, proclamation and conferral. The President may also choose to add from this list of honorees based on her executive prerogative.

The qualifications for being a candidate to the Order of National Artists include: living artists who have been Filipino citizens for at least ten years prior to his/her nomination, as well as those who died after the establishment of the award in 1972 but were Filipino citizens at the time of their death; artists, who through the content and form of their works, contributed in building a Filipino sense of nationhood; artists who have pioneered in a mode of creative expression or style, thus, earning distinction and making an impact on succeeding generations of artists; artists who have created a substantial and significant body of works and/or consistently displayed excellence in the practice of their art form thus enriching artistic expression or style; and artists who enjoy broad acceptance through prestigious national and/or international recognition/awards, critical acclaim and/or reviews of their works, and the respect and esteem from their peers. On the other hand, the privileges of being proclaimed National Artists include a special National Artist medallion and citation signed by the President; a cash award of PhP 100,000 for living awardees, or PhP 75,000 for posthumous awardees payable to their legal heirs; a monthly life pension, medical and hospitalization benefits; life insurance coverage for awardees who are still insurable; arrangements and expenses for a state funeral; and a place of honor, in line with protocular precedence, at national state functions, and recognition at cultural events.

The current list of National Artists in the Visual Arts (which includes Painting and Sculpture) include: Fernando Cueto Amorsolo for Painting (1972);  Carlos “Botong” Villaluz Francisco for Painting, and Guillermo Estrella Tolentino for Sculpture (1973); Napoleon Veloso Abueva for Sculpture, and Victorio Cecilia Edades for Painting (1976); Vicente Silva Manansala for Painting (1981); Cesar Torrente Legaspi for Visual Arts (1990); Hernando Ruiz Ocampo for Visual Arts (1991); Arturo Rogerio Luz for Visual Arts (1997); Jeremias Elizalde Navarro for Painting (1999); Kiukok Lim Ang for Visual Arts (2001); Jose Tanig Joya for Visual Arts (2003); and Benedicto Reyes Cabrera for Visual Arts, and Abdulmari Asia Imao for Sculpture (2006).

A Culture In Their Keep

For Mikee and Sheila Romero, the pleasure a painting brings lies partly in the ardent pursuit of it, and the fun of building an art collection is in the teamwork

by Tara FT Sering

A Culture In Their Keep

If the home is a reflection of oneself, then the walls make up that of Dr. Mikee and Sheila Romero’s tell this, among other stories: that couple are vigorous art collectors with a taste for the masterpieces that helped shape Philippine art.

“Most collectors will tell you that apart from the painting itself, it’s the thrill of the hunt that brings great satisfaction,” says businessman Mikee Romero, CEO of Harbour Centre, a modern international port facility in Manila. While a number of noted collectors are solitary hunters, the Romeros work in tandem, so to speak, and a certain dynamic governs their collecting habits. Both admit that Mikee, like a businessman on bullish mode, likes to go for the push—for instance, during auctions—and Sheila, who also holds the reigns to a business enterprise as CEO of Oracle Residences and Dorm, exercises more restraint, if not caution.

“We also believe that if it’s not for us, then it’s not for us,” she says, adding that there have been missed opportunities, but few feelings of regret. “That way you don’t feel bad about not getting it. And you look forward to the next opportunity.”

Yet collecting, as described by the couple, is an inescapable gene that must be indulged, one that inspires an exhilarating mental enterprise—game of strategy, patience, and calculated risks that they both embrace.

“When you get attracted to a painting, you develop something like tunnel vision. You fall in love with it, and sometimes you can’t sleep just picturing it on your wall. Then you can’t stop figuring out how to get it,” Mikee says.

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The Art of Building

Can art solve the problems of city planning and social order? We find clues in the work of Jorge Ramos, venerable builder of Metro Manila state architecture.

By Stephanie Dychiu

The Art of Building

There is art that exists purely for beauty, and art that fuses beauty with utility. If art never met architecture, we would still be living in caves. For this reason, Ayn Rand
called architecture the “highest of all the arts”, and dedicated her novel, The Fountainhead, to the noble builder’s profession.

Howard Roark’s obsession to build a skyscraper that would symbolize the greatness of man is reminiscent of the last state-sponsored building boom witnessed by Metro
Manila in the Seventies and Early Eighties, when Imelda Marcos dreamed of the “City of Man” and tried to dredge it out of the waters of Manila Bay. If, as Frank Lloyd Wright said, architecture gives form to the social order we wish to live in, then the government’s building projects from that period were the Bagong Lipunan (New Society) made flesh.

Quite a number of those monuments to progress sprung from the mind of architect Jorge Ramos, whose buildings have become so much a part of the landscape that people
seldom question how they got there. It’s hard to fathom Metro Manila without the Heart, Lung, and Kidney Centers on East Avenue, the GSIS Complex at the Pasay City reclamation area, the Quiapo Mosque, and the expanded Malacañang Palace and Philippine General Hospital as we know them today.

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Visual Feast

At Chef Laudico Bistro Filipino, the plate is a canvas and every meal is an artistic encounter

by Jewel Chuaunsu

Visual Feast

The visual composition of food on a plate plays a crucial role in the overall dining experience, and one of Manila’s most exciting chefs currently working the kitchen is reinterpreting the way we serve Filipino dishes. Clever is a word one might use for chef Rolando Laudico’s fresh takes on old favorites—instead of dunking fish or shrimp balls into vinegar, he sometimes squirts a wicked variety of vinegar into the round treats—but perhaps inventive best describes his whole ouvre. At his restaurant, Chef Laudico Bistro Filipino, where local fare based on tradition is served with a modern and sophisticated twist, playing with different elements—colors, textures, shapes, forms, space—to plate food in a way that pleases the eye and whets the appetite is an every-meal affair. “I like putting a little bit of surprise and innovation into each dish. We also try to make it look different—not the usual way of serving. I play around with textures, with the taste and presentation,” he says. After all, the appreciation of food engages all the senses. Aside from the visual aspect, we perceive enticing aromas, contrasting textures, sizzling sounds, and exciting flavors. Here’s a taste of how he does it.

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Escape to Team Manila

In praise of graphic design, and the art of the streets

By Stephanie Dychiu

Escape to Team Manila

To know the art of a city, one turns to its museums and galleries. Inside them are the works of career artists, neatly framed, labeled, annotated, curated. Everything is studied, controlled. This is the world of high art. Surrounding it and forever rubbing against it is the world of the unschooled, the unprompted, some would say, the uncouth. Jeepney kitsch. Pop culture pastiche. Sari-sari store sensibility. This is the world Team Manila unabashedly feasts on, and projects onto T-shirts, wallets, notebooks, bags, mugs, album covers—to unprecedented success.

For the graphic design group founded by Jowee Alviar and Mon Punzalan, inspiration can strike anywhere, and everything is a medium. We briefly get inside their heads with the other members of the Team—Mica Cabildo, Randy Evasco, Paula Pangan, Vince Africa—and tap into the thinking that took the bad out of baduy (tacky).

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