Game fowl & equine art, portraits & nudes

As coffee-table books go, this one is certainly very handsome, elegant and stately, and decidedly a collectible.

To be launched at the Cameron Forbes Room at the Manila Polo Club at six in the evening this Sunday, Oct. 22, is Salvador Arellano: Game Fowl Art and Other Works, published by The Cockhouse Inc.

The title may seem to favor Arellano’s renditions, mostly in watercolor, of game fowl, meaning fighting cocks or chickens, which claim primary representation in the first part of the book. But the rest of his works are just as exquisitely stunning: equine art, portraiture, and nudes – in watercolor, oil and charcoal.

Superbly designed by topnotch photographer and graphic artist Gody Gutierrez who’s based in San Francisco, the art book was printed in Hong Kong. It finally places between covers the classically representative genre works by the world-class Filipino artist Salvador "Dodong" Arellano, heir to the great architect and painter Juan Arellano.

Dodong has been based in Los Angeles for decades, where he has gained the privilege of being officially declared as resident artist of the LA Equestrian Center. His equine art has been hailed by critics and aficionados worldwide, and found places of honor at The Armand Hammer Museum as well as the private collections of distinguished personalities, including HRH Prince Charles, former British PM Margaret Thatcher, the Sultan of Brunei, Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone, the late American Hall of Fame jockey Willie Shoemaker, and the prominent American thoroughbred trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Among his fellow Filipino collectors are Ambassador Eduardo and Gretchen Cojuangco, Rep. Mark Cojuangco, the late Ramon Mitra and Ma. Clara Lobregat, Manolo and Marites Lopez, Carlos Arellano, Melo Santiago, Greg and Irene Araneta, Joe and Marily Orosa, and numerous other patrons of equine and game fowl art and portraiture.

The blurbs commending the book collection are a testament to Arellano’s continuing life work, for which he regularly shuttles from LA to Manila, with frequent stops in Sydney, Singapore, Houston and other cities in Texas.

"I have admired and collected Dodong’s paintings over the years; they have been a constant source of delight and pleasure for both myself and Danding, my family and friends." – Gretchen O. Cojuangco

"Powerful work. Salvador brings to American contemporary art a personal insight into the equestrian world that few artists have achieved." – Hillary Gibson, curator, The Armand Hammer Museum

"I know Salvador as a gifted artist of remarkable writing and painting skills. This book is an elegant contribution to the world of published fine art." – Al Martinez, Pulitzer Prize columnist, The Los Angeles Times

"Salvador Arellano’s superb paintings prove the incontestable supremacy of classical representation that has been woefully lacking in Philippine art for many years now. It should serve to inspire our new generation of artists." – Santiago Albano Pilar, Philippine art historian

A charming facet of the book are Dodong’s notations – in his own exemplary write, indeed – on most of the works, their provenance and inspiration, and the aesthetic objectives he set out to accomplish as a fine artist.

Here’s an excerpt from the foreword written by Alejandro S. Roces, National Artist for Literature:

"(This book) is first and foremost an artist’s attempt to capture the cockfighting and horse racing activities that are two of the major gambling sports in the Philippines.

"The game cock is the symbol of courage. The racehorse stands for speed and strength....

"... (W)e might challenge the distinguished artist Salvador Arellano to accomplish a ‘Filipino First’ – by eventually presenting in his world-class oeuvres all the 43 different color patterns of fighting roosters. I think he will find that he will be mixing all possible colors in his palette to achieve this monumental feat....

"Horse racing is to America what cockfighting is in the Philippines. It is the most widely attended spectator sport after baseball....

"It is horse racing that was responsible for the improvement of the horse varieties in the Philippines. Originally, the horse was simply the animal that inspired the invention of a mass transport system.

"The highest praise that the British can say about anything they wish to commend is: "That beats cockfighting!"

"This is also what we say of Salvador Arellano’s display of his innate genius, well-honed craft and superlative art in this book:

"It beats cockfighting!"

From the introduction, written by this abiding friend from San Juan del Monte days in the Sixties, and who happens to be an art-of-the-nude aficionado, another excerpt:

"Amazingly, this consummate artist had no claim at all to academic art education; entirely unschooled and untutored, he learned and developed quite simply on his own....

"And yet Arellano’s portraits are consummately lyrical while hewing to strictly representational fashion. There is no mannerism that impinges on his art; it is as if his pact with the muse insists on a less than cavalier application of draftsmanship of the highest order.

"He challenges himself, always seeking to rise to the level of the subject at hand, while also looking back at the experiential process that informed his superb familiarity with cock or stud. It is not technique alone that distinguishes Salvador Arellano’s art, but a grand strategy – make that stratagem, replete with gambits and derring-do – that involves a supreme dalliance with all the myriad memories of prized birds strutting or perching in situ, or a thoroughbred trotting in prideful, amazing grace....

"Dodong’s nudes and personality portraits, very much like his better-known celebration of game fowl and horses, are themselves distinct creations.... The individual persona shines through, transcending the guile and wisdom that transform curve of flesh, supple undulation, each lambent pair of eyes, each languid pose, into a deliquescent intimacy suggestive of what has gone on between model and artist.

"Each woman speaks for herself, not for all women.

"His nudes bespeak the artist’s quintessential spirit and creative force. Salvador Arellano undoubtedly knows whereof he honors and celebrates."