Imagination unbound

An album of 24 watercolors in exchange for a house in Forbes Park? What kind of an album is that and what sort of a person would opt to own it instead of a property in the country’s most expensive residential enclave?

In the book Album: Islas Filipinas, 1663-1888, the pricey album is reproduced in full color, the owner is identified and a profile on him appears alongside a scholarly essay on Damian Domingo, the artist of the watercolors depicting costumes of people in the Philippines.

The Damian Domingo album is joined by 11 other albums on the Philippines of the Spanish era. The albums featured in the book cover a wide range of artworks - from calligraphy to cartography, from military uniforms to Manila costumes, from playing cards to building plans, from Manila street scenes to harbor views of Zamboanga and Sorsogon. Before the advent of photography, these albums of hand-drawn or painted images were the popular visual records of events and local scenes and were standard souvenirs from visiting foreigners to families and friends back home.

The artists behind the albums range from the now acclaimed Filipino masters Damian Domingo, Justiniano Asuncion, Jose Lozano and Felix Martinez to students of a Jesuit-run normal school, and to foreigners on short visits to the country. The albums provide the readers a multiplicity of images which enables its viewers to arrive at a more cohesive account or a more complete picture of a given subject matter.

Fashion designers will find the changing silhouettes of skirts and unorthodox color schemes particularly interesting. Architects will delight in the details of windows and awnings, urban planners will view with regret a Manila that was once truly clean, green and orderly while art historians will find a wealth of data on the evolution of the tipos del pais.

The book , authored by Jose Ma. Carino and Sonia Pinto Ner, is a product of research in libraries here and in Spain and a close scrutiny of each of the albums by either or both of the authors. The book has highly informative essays to introduce each album, followed by the repro-duction of all the plates in the album. A comparison of the styles of Domingo and Asuncion, clues on establishing authenticity, and revelations such as the artist behind the Zobel’s Karuth album are just a few of the interesting items in the text, while the excellent repro-ductions of the artworks are guaranteed to provide sheer visual delight to anyone with even a mild interest in Philippine art and culture.

The book is published by Ars Mundi Philippinae, a non-profit organization devoted to research on Philippine art and culture. An earlier book published by the group is the award winning Filipinas 1847, a monograph on the artist Jose Honorato Lozano.

With property values in Forbes Park reaching record prices, does the owner of the album regret having chosen the album over the house more than 3 decades ago? Not one bit. He has enjoyed looking at the album in the privacy of his home, the ownership has given him bragging rights and he steadfastly maintains , " It is so easy to get a house in Forbes –or anywhere– as long as you have the money. But to own an authentic Damian Domingo album . . . is something else’. As any avid collector will attest, the joy of owning a rare piece is well beyond measure.

* * *

The book will be available starting November 25 in the Ayala Museum Shop and Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati, Metropolitan Museum Shop and Tradewinds in Manila and Aeon Bookshop in Loyola. For further information please contact Ars Mundi at [email protected].