40 years of Olazo: How to speak softly but carry a big stick
MANILA, Philippines – At the recent ManilArt ’09, Manila’s first international art fair, which ran from July 17 to 19, the country’s top artists took the spotlight, drawing mini-mobs of fans eager for a photo-op with the stellar names that dot local art’s firmament. Groups of three or four would flank an artist, camera-phones or digital cameras would be whipped out, and flashes would go off. One art enthusiast, thrilled that so many of the legends she’d only read about in newspapers and books were milling about “like regular people,” kept her eyes peeled for one artist in particular whose chin-length hair, white as a wizard’s, made him easy to spot among a crowd.
Romulo Olazo became her mother’s favorite in the 1970s, when the artist debuted his now-famous “Diaphanous Series”; now, more than three decades later, she is as much a fan of the artist as her mother was. If this shared interest that straddles generations says anything of the artist’s work, it’s that its appeal, like all great works of art, does more than endure wildly shifting trends: It continues to evolve, excite, inspire.
“Some people say that the works he is producing now are his best yet,” she says, referring to the artist’s new painting in the “Diaphanous Series,” oil on canvas works with swaths of sheer shapes, sometimes abrupt, sometimes fluid, in operatic composition against a backdrop of color. Throughout the years, Olazo’s palette has evolved, from dark and dramatic to brighter, more effusive hues charged with a different energy that, by all appearances, a younger audience is now connecting with. “The colors are more intense, and the palette is more intriguing.”
The scene at the art fair is vastly different from what Olazo had known as an artist starting out in the 1960s. Except for the works of a few abstract artists, such as Jose Joya and Arturo Luz, Olazo says the public back then did not take to abstract art as much as they did to figurative works reflecting, among other things, idyllic images of local life.
“Mas receptive ang mga tao ngayon,” says Olazo. “Di katulad ng dati. Dati wala masyadong acceptance sa abstract art…kaya natutuwa ako ngayon na madami na.”
The spark of interest in the new works invites another look at the broad collection that is Olazo’s art, and at the artist himself. Romulo Olazo literally speaks softly and carries a big walking stick, making him the perfect living metaphor for himself as an artist — to bend the famous Theodore Roosevelt credo for art’s sake, the famously mild-mannered and unassuming Olazo, who says only a few words and needs little more to speak his mind on art, has produced an impressive body of works to steady and consistent acclaim.
Still, he is quick to credit other people for a brilliant career peppered with recognition. His wife Pat, for instance, is the force he says has served as both inspiration and unofficial chief executive of his life and career. “Magaling kasi ang misis ko,” says the artist, when asked about how he has managed to live out a life in art, as many in the art community say of him, marked with grace and magnanimity. “She takes care of everything.”
And during a luncheon in his honor in early July, he let a couple of works that were on display speak for themselves: Two large framed abstract pieces stood along one wall, each representing collections he has earned much critical and commercial acclaim for, and both comprising a promising preview to an upcoming landmark exhibition.
“Romulo Olazo: A 40-Year Retrospective,” which opens today at the Ayala Museum, casts the spotlight down the length and breadth of Olazo’s body of works across four decades. Presented by Ayala Museum, in collaboration with AZOOL, the artist’s management company, and Paseo Gallery, the exhibit features works from distinct periods of the artist’s career, representing various approaches to painting and printmaking, as well as a range of subject matter — from nudes, to landscapes, and to the more cerebral abstract pieces of the “Permutation” and “Diaphanous” series that artist is best known for. The scope of the exhibition is unprecedented and brings the public a visual chronicle of the artist’s progression from komiks illustrator to master printmaker and painter.
Bursting into the scene as a printmaker in the 1960s, Olazo has garnered numerous awards, a number of them in recognition for his contribution to printmaking in the Philippines. In 1979, he stepped onto the international stage with his entry to the 11th International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo, where the work won honorable mention. He has held approximately 37 solo exhibitions since 1974. And two years before that, he had been named as one among 13 for the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Award.
At 75, Olazo exudes the calm of those who have done everything they had set out to do, but the truth, which he all but whispers at the luncheon, is a surprise: “Gusto mag-pinta ng mas malaki pa,” he says, an excitement mounting behind the small chuckle. A number of Olazo’s works are already large and mural-sized, such as two “Diaphanous” works that cover an entire wall in the family’s city flat. “Hindi ko alam bakit, pero gusto ko gumawa ng malaking malaki, parang yung ‘Spoliarium’ ni Juan Luna.”
While he used to paint every day until midnight, the advancing years have slowed him down, and now he paints for an average of three days a week. Still, the reward of an artist is largely the very act of making art, something he intends to do for quite some time. “Gagawin ko talaga ’yun,” he says, the satisfied smile returning. Expect to see a massive work soon.
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“Romulo Olazo: A 40-Year Retrospective,” is on view from July 27 to Sept. 13 at the ground floor of Ayala Museum, Makati Ave. corner Dela Rosa St., Makati City.
