Artes de las Filipinas
THE ARTS OF THE PHILIPPINES
Cenon Rivera: Artist and Professor of Modern Art 
by Christiane L. de la Paz
April 2012-- Cenon Rivera, a painter of note, began his art career in the 1950s and later made significant contributions in Philippine art. In 1952, he pioneered in graphic art by making distinctive eighty different sets of serigraphed Christmas Cards. Then in 1956, he began experimenting on monoprint, woodcut, linocut and lawanicut. It was also in this year when he started teaching graphic art at the University of Santo Tomas. He also published “Pintig ng Buhay at iba pang Katha,” a bilingual collection of short stories, poems, essays and other writings he did from 1938 to 1956. In 1957, Cenon Rivera started a painting style characterized by horizontal and vertical grids for which he was best remembered. However, despite all the articles written about him and the significant works he produced, the man himself had remained a mystery to many. In this April 2012 feature, Noel Rivera, the artist’s son and Executive Director of the Pasig City Museum, provided much information about his father’s early career and development as an artist; his artistic outputs; his known and unknown contributions as an art professor and director of the UST Department of Fine Arts and his private life with him.
Has there been any book written about your father?
As far as I know none yet. He was authoring his own book and when he reached the final editing stage, Alzheimer occurred.
Your father was a painter, sculptor, printmaker and maker of mosaic and stained glass. Which came first? second? third?
Painter, poet, printmaker, stained glass, maker of mosaic, sculptor.
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March 2012--Ramon Estella first made a name for himself as a writer and director for film, television and radio during the 1950s before having his solo exhibition in 1959 at the Philippine Art Gallery. Working together with Hernando Ocampo, Vicente Manansala, Cesar Legaspi, Romeo Tabuena and Victor Oteyza, he became a practitioner of expressionism and cubism and later developed a style characterized by bold lines and strident color. Estella had always believed that this approach of painting “leads to a healthy movement, to a kind of art which allows the painter the same freedom in paint as music notes allow the composer -- not an imitation of nature but a personal interpretation.” Six of Estella’s children: Regina Estella, Rosemarie Bosque, Cynthia Ormachea, Cecile Lavine, Ricardo Estella and Ramon Estella Jr., provided detailed descriptions of their father’s early, middle and late career and offered important insights into contemporary perceptions of his heritage as an artist. It is hoped that Ramon Estella’s contribution brings the fruits of his artist’s lifetime back into the public eye.
Has there been any book written about your father?
Not to my knowledge only articles in newspapers and magazines. Teddy Co is writing a book about Dad as a director. It was supposed to have been finished three years ago.
Your father is a known filmmaker. Was he a filmmaker first and painter second?
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ANTIGUEDAD
"…the work of an artist and master potter."--Robert Fox
27th April 1995—I was 11 years old when I visited the National Museum -- the repository of our cultural, natural and historical heritage. I remembered the majesty of climbing those steps and walking past the Neo-classical Roman columns until I was inside the Old Congress Building.
Today, if the Metropolitan Museum’s identifying piece was the painting Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas Al Populacho by Felix Resurrecion Hidaldo and the GSIS Museum its Parisian Life by the painter Juan Luna, the National Museum’s, El Spoliarium, Luna’s most famous piece. Many people come to the museum just for this painting. But another less-popular but quite significant piece was the Manunggul jar.
The Manunggul jar was one of the numerous jars found in a cave believed to be a burial site (Manunggul, was part of the archaeologically significant Tabon Cave Complex in Lipuun Point, Quezon, Palawan) that was discovered on March 1964 by Victor Decalan, Hans Kasten and other volunteer workers from the United States Peace Corps. The Manunggul burial jar was unique in all respects. Dating back to the late Neolithic Period (around 710 B.C.), Robert Fox described the jar in his landmark work on the Tabon Caves:
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DE INTERES
January 2012--Along with its search for wealth, the Spanish colonizers made it a top mission to spread Catholicism in the Philippines. And to broaden the reach of Christianity, a place for worship is needed to bring the congregation together. As a result, churches were built around the country for Christianity to thrive. One of these churches was the San Agustin Church.
The San Agustin church was rebuilt three times due to man-made and natural disasters. Since then, it has withstood natural disasters and has become the oldest church in the Philippines. It is now recognized by the government and UNESCO as a historical landmark.
The History of the Church
The San Agustin Church was under the auspices of the Agustinian Order. The friars took the cudgels in building the church. Like many structures during that time, the church of San Agustin was built with the use of nipa and bamboo. The building of the church started in 1571, it was then officially named as Iglesia y Convento de San Pablo.
In 1574, the Chinese pirate, Limahong invaded Manila. The invasion led to the burning of the city and the San Agustin Church was not spared. This led to the first reconstruction of the church a year later. The second church was made of wooden materials. Because of the choice of the structural material used, it remained risky to fire accidents. True enough, another fire caused the destruction of the church in 1583.
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CRITICA
April 2012 -- The press has recently been full of reports about forgeries. In Europe, fakes by Wolfgang Beltracchi have embarrassed a number of experts and collectors. In the US, a painting purportedly by Jackson Pollock that was sold for $17m is the subject of a lawsuit against the now-closed Knoedler gallery and its former president Ann Freedman. This “Pollock”, moreover, seems to be only the tip of the iceberg, since it appears to belong to a surprisingly large collection of pictures supposedly painted by leading abstract expressionist artists. This collection was allegedly brokered by a previously obscure dealer named Glafira Rosales, who is now said to be the subject of an FBI investigation. The names attached to the paintings Rosales allegedly handled include Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still, as well as Pollock.
One of these paintings, supposedly from the “Elegy to the Spanish Republic” series by Motherwell, was recently confirmed as a forgery by the Dedalus Foundation as part of a court settlement. The foundation, which I head, is sponsoring a catalogue raisonné of Motherwell’s work. Our experience with this and related works makes it clear how problematic the issue of authenticity has become for scholars, collectors, gallery owners, and foundations specialising in modern painting. Sharply rising prices and an increasing scarcity of major works have created a rich environment for forgers.
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TRIVIALIDADES DE ARTE
Munch's 'Scream' beats auction record at $119.9 mn
by Brigitte Dusseau of the Associated Foreign Press Global EditionMay 2012--"The Scream" is one of four versions of a work whose nightmarish central figure and lurid, swirling colors symbolized the existential angst and despair of the modern age.
It was sold by Norwegian Petter Olsen, whose father was a friend and supporter of the artist. He plans to establish a new museum in Norway.
On two occasions, other versions of the painting have been stolen from museums, although both were recovered. Copies have adorned everything from student dorms to tea mugs and the work has the rare quality of being known to art experts and the general public alike.
"We're delighted to say that this magnificent picture, which is not only one of the seminal images of our history, but also one of the visual keys for modern consciousness, achieved a world record," Simon Shaw, head of the Impressionist and modern department at Sotheby's, said.
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ACONSEJAR
Book Review: Edifice Complex: Power, Myth, and the Marcos State Architecture by Gerard Lico
by Arch. Roselle SantosThe book is about Marcosian Architecture. The author started each chapter with quotes from different scholars as an introduction to his discussions. The book is very much influenced by Michel Foucaults discourse on power and knowledge. Lico says that Marcos regime recognized the nexus of architecture and society, its potential for influencing the community, and wielded this weapon to promote the aesthetics of power in the built form. The book seeks to contribute to theoretical work on the relationship between architecture and power. It documents some of the socio-historical dimensions of the Marcos regimes major architectural accomplishments which include the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Folk Arts Theater, PHILCITE, Philippine International Convention Center, Philippine Trade Pavillons, Tahanang Pilipino (Coconut Palace), and the Manila Film Center. Through this book, Lico hopes to generate awareness of the unrecognized power of architecture.
The book investigates how state architecture functioned as one of the authoritarian regime’s legitimizing mechanism for socio-political control. He hopes to introduce a novel way of writing Philippine architectural history, which has been plagued by formal rules and stylistic canons (include issues of power relations). He, however, asserts that there is no absolute view, concentrated on the socio-historical narrative of buildings situated at the reclaimed foreshore development in Manila Bay.
Chapter 1 (Architecture and Society) starts with a quote from Norris Kelly Smith about architecture revealing that "not only the aesthetic and formal preferences of an architect/client but also the aspirations, power struggles and material culture of a society." The author said that architecture implicates "space" and its utilization as "place" by its occupants. He called on Michel Focault’s "hybrid concept of power-knowledge" to explain how space is created and arranged "to gain control over knowledge" through "surveillance and asymmetrical visibility"( the gaze). Foucault introduces the term "panopticon" or knowledge tied to systems wit human beings as objects of disciplinary knowledge.
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ANUNCIO
October 20, 2009 -- EACOMM Corporation hosted a cocktail reception to celebrate the publication of its first book project, Private Collections. Almost three hundred guests turned up at the Isla Ballroom 3 of Edsa Shangri-La Hotel to welcome the release of the limited edition art book and to have it signed by the art collectors.
The audience had a warm and unforgettable moment that Tuesday evening. Artists and distinguished guests from the business, arts and society stood in lines to meet and have a chat with Washington SyCip, Hans Sy, David Consunji, Joey de Leon, Napoleon Abueva, Charlie Cojuangco, Joel Jimenez, Eddie Chua, Patrick Reyno, Mark Villar, Julius Babao, Arsenio Tanco, Jovenal Santiago, Manny Zialcita, Gilbert Santos, Wilmer Hontiveros, Louie Ojeda, Mikee Romero and Alexander Tan, who were recognized and honored that night.
Private Collections is available online and at Fully Booked and Powerbooks.
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