Art as a wealth of shelter
Structural Art by Philippine Artists, featuring the collection of art patron Carlos A. Arellano, was launched on Jan. 6 at Prisms Gallery in Art Walk, SM Megamall.
Guests of honor for the affair were National Artist Arturo Luz, Philippine Star columnist and Blueprint magazine editor Paulo Alcazaren, and noted architect and art collector Bnn Bautista, all of whom delivered salient remarks on the relationship between visual arts and architecture.
Showcasing over 140 full-color plates of artworks by nearly a hundred Philippine artists, including Luz and his fellow National Artists Vicente Manansala, H.R. Ocampo, Ang Kiukok, and J. Elizalde Navarro, the 124-page coffeetable book is published by Onion & Chives Inc., with Nola Almario-Cadayona as associate publisher and James DL Viola as book designer.
It marks the third volume of a continuing series billed as “A Collection of Ageless Art.” Previous titles were A Treasury of Philippine Nudes (2005) and Different Faces of Mother & Child in Philippine Art (2006).
Among the more notable names represented in the latest title are the late great architect-artist Juan Arellano, the sculptor Agnes Arellano, Michael Austria, Manny Baldemor, the late Santi Bose, Angel Cacnio, Rafael Cusi, the late Ibarra Dela Rosa, his young daughter Camille Dela Rosa, Gene de Loyola, Paul Dimalanta, Elmer Gernale, Philip Ines, Prudencio Lamarroza, Julius Limpe, Entes Magpusao, Larry Memije, Rafael Pacheco, Erlinda Panlilio, Al Perez, Pancho Piano, Rene Robles, Fidel Sarmiento, Fernando Sena, Phyllis Zaballero, Oscar Zalameda, Godofredo Zapanta Sr. and Pons Zapanta.
Not a few of these artists actually specialize in structural art, such as the renowned Memije, whose fine renditions of the bahay na bato, especially what we call the Vigan house, can fill up an entire book. Despite her relative youth, Camille Dela Rosa’s paintings of churches all over our archipelago also call for a patron-publisher.
Baldemor often paints populated landscapes and skylines both here and abroad, including fabled Eastern European castles. Most of the other artists in the book have also indulged in thematic phases involving residential features, as with Zaballero’s recent, elegantly whimsical works on
An avid collector of Philippine art, Carlos “Chuckie” Arellano has built up such a formidable art treasury that it can easily be classified into thematic genres: nudes, portraits, landscapes, flora and fauna, and the fantastical, among others.
His experience in banking, finance and the share market runs parallel to his passion for the arts.
In his foreword titled “Close to the Heart,” Arellano writes:
“I should have published this book a long time ago, especially because of its subject.
“Having lived with a family of architects and artists all my life, my focus on art never diminished as the years went by. Art has continued to be a part of my life. It is, in fact, in my blood.
“... To complement my endeavor as well as that of Filipino artists, I have opened three art galleries, with one under a special arrangement — to cater to the needs of the general public and to assist artists in this country, especially the emerging ones.
“I have also continued to publish books on art.
“My objective is twofold: firstly, to assist emerging artists by developing their talents through financial and physical assistance; but more importantly, to promote our country’s art by bringing it to the level of a real commodity, where values are realized and appreciated.
“Here, we need a tailor-made, Sotheby’s-type of auction market and an exchange similar to our share market. However, to accomplish these, we definitely need major assistance from the government, not only by way of funding but also through the passage of certain legislation.
“Major businesses, especially banks, must also do their part. The banking system should open itself up to this new type of endeavor. It would be great to see banks accepting works of art for collateral as part of their lending policy. Providing a 50 percent to 70 percent loan value on an Amorsolo or Luna painting should manifest such an acceptance by the banks as part of their regular business.
“Actually, on a long-term basis, paintings or other works of art can provide a greater return vis-à-vis the share market. This has been the experience in other countries. Thus, such a potential must be developed somehow, and soon enough, for the sake of art and investors in this country.
“The paintings in this book depict structural and architectural designs — the kind of art that is closest to my heart, as well as that of my family’s.”
The book is divided into seven sections: The Masters; Dwellings; Landmarks; Houses of Worship; Civic Works; On Foreign Shores; and Structures of Fantasy.
As executive editor, I wrote the Introduction, “A Wealth of Shelter,” excerpts of which follow:
“In Philippine art, there exists a remarkable wealth of... architectural art, consisting of depictions of houses, public buildings, churches, bridges, lighthouses, and internal as well as external features of the same.
“The bahay kubo or nipa hut, as steadfast a symbol of the countryside as rice fields and rivers, women washing or bathing in streams, or verdant valleys and hillsides, has been celebrated no end from the art of Filipino classicists to that of contemporary and upcoming masters.
“While the bahay kubo is often represented in rustic scenes, it mostly serves as an idyllic or near mythic symbol, with no actual individual identity, but rather like a generic image that stands in the fields and symbolizes the farming folk and their modest station. Sometimes it is seen being carried through familiar terrain, on the shoulders of brawny men, thus serving as both image and symbol of the spirit of bayanihan or community support and camaraderie.
“Other than the bahay kubo, which is made of indigenous materials such as bamboo and palm fronds, there is the bahay na bato or house of stone that marks and also represents the advent of Western technology, specifically the Castilian influence.
“... From early native shelter, then, to the colonial influence in architecture, the Philippine landscape has seen a progression of images of shelter — till now evolving into what is seasonally trendy and fashionable, even modernist. Indeed, the towering condominiums in urban centers are a far cry from the stilt-houses of the indigenes. Yet they share a representation of the basic need for shelter.
“The Filipino painter can do no less than document this reality, in various times, whether as romanticized styling of traditional and contemporary dwellings, or as social commentary when, for instance, a barong-barong community or shantytown is turned into yet another subject, not necessarily to glorify the common roof above our heads.
“Spiritual shelter is in turn provided by houses of worship, numerous specimens of which stand all over our islands — as monuments to a past, and yet preserved as a continuing source of strength and a haven for a community. Some have become landmarks, to which a special section of this book is devoted.
“The subject matter is divided into several classifications, beginning with the works of Filipino masters, proceeding through the timeline of types of family shelter, coursing through churches and mosques, and even including works by Filipino painters depicting architecture abroad as well as those belonging to a fantastic realm.
“This book collects fine examples of tribute and stark documentation, of landscape studies with buildings, of riparian and coastal villages, of civic works that hold a people together, or guide them through seas of timelessness, as beacons.
“The works are varied in their celebration of facades, walls, doors, windows, and all other manifestations of man’s ability to plan and build, to design and erect, to visualize and construct, to imagine and to shape the dream into a structure of permanence.
“Dynamic creative efforts of emerging young painters are also on display in these pages, for it is they who must carry the torch, the fire of inspiration that is handed down from generation to generation — especially when we celebrate the feat of having dwelled together as sentient beings capable of executing the master plan, thereby turning into moving spirits or virtual gods.”
