The cover looks a tad more cinematic than your usual art book: the painter Tam Austria, garbed in all black from head to foot (see the mesh hat that so neatly conceals a crown of platinum hair), looks at the middle distance as the sunset, which paints the sky a pale wash of yellow, lights up the arm that holds the brush, cast vertically in a mood of relaxation. The palette looks like a gold disc cradled by the other arm. Here is an artist in conversation with himself, with nature and, bearing the implements of the artist’s trade, with the history of art.
If there’s anything to be gleaned from the initial image of this double feature of a book (it contains both the biography of the artist, Zeal for Art, written by the foremost art critic Alice Guillermo and the artist’s philosophical musings, My Inspirer) is that art and life meet at the singular point which is the artist, inextricable from each other. In fact, Austria has evolved, through the years, a kind of spiritual creed that informs and animates both, calling it Recreamindoism Rena, based on the concepts of realism, creation, aestheticism, modernism, intellectualism, nationalism, democraticism, optimism and naturalism.
For the novice, it is not easy to follow. The artist, once egged on to talk about his philosophy, said, “Just stay put on the spirit over matter, quality over quantity, maintained reflective classification on reflective material totality.” Another: “Mindset focused on subsidiary matter and primarily immaterial object, the heart’s central part of explanation, inspired by the Genesis in Latin, Fon et Oregon, and its plausibility worthy of belief for love and wisdom…”
Beyond the difficulty posed by his pronouncements, Austria, in essence, is simply affirming the artist’s central role in the discourse of how it is to be human, how it is to be alive in the world. “I define artists as the source of all inspired creations,” says Austria in a moment of clarity. “The artist is the representation of all creation and whose sole duty is to create beautiful objects. This in turn brings a sense of well-being in the state of joy, peace and harmony.”
While his ideas may seem rarefied, his works, sought-after pieces by collectors for the naturalness of their forms and the masterful combination of colors, are as rooted as you can get: rich flora and fauna surrounding figures (usually of women) in their distinct Filipiniana dresses who conduct themselves with subtle elegance such as in gathering palay stalks, blowing into a flute or holding a child, their cheeks in a blush, their faces lit by an almost supernatural glow. It is that glow by which you can easily spot an Austria, a luminosity that instantly engages the eye and holds it rapt and mesmerized.
“What is particularly important about the artistic oeuvre of Tam Austria,” says Alice Guillermo, “is its intuitive discovery of a quintessential style of Philippine modernism, which endows the general essence of modernism with a distinctly Filipino quality…Indeed, one can say that Austria is a true descendant of his town mate, the National Artist Carlos Francisco known for his amazing natural and intuitive painting skills. Austria’s paintings in oil on canvas are marked by a spontaneous linear energy, which possesses a narrative as its own, which in combination with color, is powered with a true creative energy.”
This is the same energy that dazzles in the book, a hefty tome that generously features Austria’s works at every stage of his career as well as significant moments of his personal life.
Zeal for Art/My Inspirer is, says Austria, “dedicated to this high-tech generation age of maturity, responsibility, and wisdom, a book that seeks a multicultural civilization by the majority’s rule, and creates soundness that communes with more friends, no enemies, and guides readers in enjoying the human and fascinating journey into the unexplored.”