Raphael Sanzio studied under Pietro Perugino to become one of the exponents of late Renaissance painting in Rome. The same is true with the great Leonardo da Vinci who was a former student of Domenico Ghirlandiao, and the divine Michelangelo Buonarotti who apprenticed with Andreas del Verrocchio.
In the local art scene, many practicing artists today point to one painter who, in one way or another, has become instrumental in their taking a career in the arts. Take the case of this group of artists: Rolly Acuña, Mitzi Aguilar-Reyes, Kris Awa-ao, Joseph Auayang, Buddy Bernardo, Jeho Bitancor, Plet Bolipata-Borlongan, Elmer Borlongan, Hoche Briones, Henri Cainglet, Ted Camahalan, Rey Concepción, Salvador Convocar, Denes Dasco, Camille dela Rosa, Ferdinand Doctolero, Norman Dreo, Fernando Escora, Sandra Fabie-Gfeller, Tina Fernandez, Emy Gumera, Paul Infante, Danny Javier, Wilson Ma, Neil Manalo, Randy Marcelo, Pol Mesina, Ferdie Montemayor, Jason Moss, Anthony Ong, Jim Orencio, Glenn Palaganas, Mikel Parial, Gaudencio Romion Jr., José Santos III, Fidel Sarmiento, Eduardo Tan, MK Tan, Andy Urag, Ronaldo Ventura, Byron Valenzuela and Pamela Yan. Aside from being active names in the art exhibition circuit, they share one thing in common. They are all former students of Fernando Sena, the father of art workshops in the Philippines.
The motley group studied drawing and painting at some point in their lives with Sena, either in his famous art workshops at the Children’s Museum and Library Institute (CMLI), or at the UP College of Fine Arts, where Sena taught techniques courses for sometime. Some of these artists started at 11 years of age and most came under his tutelage for a minimum of two to four years.
The unselfish mentor that Sena is, he continues to instill in his students not only an abiding love for art, but also the discipline to pursue art with unalloyed passion.
All these 43 names are now rising stars in Philippine art. Many of these names are consistent prize winners in the various art derbies in the country today. Some are members of the KATAG, the Salingpusa, the Sanggawa, the now defunct Bahaghari, and the Art Association of the Philippines, which is now headed by Fidel Sarmiento who belongs to the first batch of students handled by Sena at CMLI. A number of these names are now teachers of art in their own right.
Recently, these 43 artists joined hands, together with five guest artists who were also at one point students of Sena, namely, Olie Campos, Larry Lim, Lilia de Lima, Julius Limpe and Deedee Siytangco, to pay homage to their mentor via a mammoth group exhibition aptly titled Senaskuela.
A total of 74 works, including two from Sena himself, constituted the exhibition at the Art Center in SM Megamall and presented by the Crucible Gallery.
The range of works is least to say varied.
Aside from being numerous, the works were just as diverse in terms of artistic concern, style, form and content. They reflected the individual styles of the artists, proof that the education they got from Sena never restricted their artistic growth, but allowed them to explore, experiment and discover their own paths in art.
Auayang’s "Spices" amply sets the flavor of the tribute. An acrylic painting on canvas, it is a magical rendering of still life, undeniably a forte of Sena. The painting in gilded frame is done in the academic tradition, almost Baroque in sensibility, where the various surfaces of objects included in the composition are richly textured.
In terms of keen handling of details, Danny Javier’s "Bakas ng Kahapon" sums it all. In almost Flemish tradition, the architectural details found in this shaped canvas work are ornately and exquisitely depicted, as if emphasizing the need to preserve everything that is handsome about the past. The works of Fidel Sarmiento echo the same disposition. Attention to detail is likewise present in Paul Infante’s "Malik-mata," an oil portrait featuring a woman clad in a southern traditional costume, but rendered disturbing by the inclusion of the latest in fashion eyewear – a pair of rimmed eyeglasses precariously perched on the nosebridge of the sitter.
If the above works are rendered exception because of their precision to details, in the case of Ferdie Montemayor and Denes Dasco, the complete reverse informs their works. Relying on the essentiality of lines, both artists limn landscapes that are set against solid colorfields. In the case of Montemayor, his "Red Cloud" is descriptive of the urban landscape that he depicts in his canvas on the lower portion of the pictorial field. Dasco’s "Wheat I and II" are generous splashes of greens and yellows where wheat grains are drawn using metallic gel ink.
The exhibit is not only limited to the representational mode. From MK Tan’s "Biosphere 97003 and 97004," which focus on banal objects in reality in a manner that emphasize their shapes to the point of their being non-recognizable, there are a handful of works that completely present artistic concerns in the abstract idiom. Foremost of these works are Rolly Acuña’s "Untitled," Ferdinand Doctolero’s "Painted Map" and Sandra Fabie-Gfeller’s "Metamorphosis."
Where process is the prime concern, one work, Norman Dreo’s "Pook," makes use of a huge digital print out of the top view of a community which serves as his pictorial space to allow the artist to integrate a variety of materials like thread, stickers and paint, and make the picture a personalized site.
Another work, Rey Concepción’s "Shredded Paper Box," goes beyond the painting process and employed a combination of printing techniques like photolithography, silkscreen and chalk pastel on paper, to show how overlapping of circular forms can effect dynamism and depth in a pictorial field.
The collection is a strong and glowing testimony to the kind of tutelage the artists obtained from Sena. Aside from fêting their teacher and expressing their gratitude for his unfailing guidance, the exhibit is also a succinct way to present themselves on their own.