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Jul. 1, 2009 5:05 PM 3 commentsamor...solo (reflections on art)
Once in an exhibit of Amorsolo's and his contemporaries' paintings, while I was looking at the art works, I couldn’t help wonder if there were any works in there that were painted by my late grandfather Agaton Alejo.
We were told the story that there was a time that my grandpa worked as an apprentice to Amorsolo and it was during this time that he painted works that were similar to the style of the said master, and when these works were done, Amorsolo would just sign them with his signature. Today I still believe that story is true because judging from the skill with which my grandfather worked on his paintings (a few of his works are still extant and are kept in our house, others are in their clients’ keeping, like the Romualdezes, Marcoses and the Vatican to name a few, and they were few indeed, that’s why my grandpa didn’t get rich as an artist)—some of his paintings were certainly very close to Amorsolo’s technique. Well, in those days, such a ‘fraudulent’ act was quite a normal thing in the ‘master-apprentice’ system. And my grandfather had to learn and earn during those times…
While I reflected on this ‘master-apprentice’ scheme, I came to think that there is a degree of similarity with the patronage system which many artists have been linked with if not dependent on since time immemorial. This similarity has something to do with the obedience or loyalty the artist has to compromise or set aside in favor of the party with the means in order to survive. In the case of my grandfather, he had to swallow his pride and sacrifice his own originality and let his ‘master’ sign the work which he himself labored on to be able to make it in the ‘art world’.
In Amorsolo’s and his contemporaries’ case, they had to sugarcoat the realities of the times they were supposedly portraying and satisfy not their artistic vision and principles but their patron’s wish so as to survive as artists and continue making art even if it entails compromise, if not submission to a dominant power.
Generally, (for me) most if not all of the paintings in the exhibit entitled “Capturing Anxieties: Amorsolo, His Contemporaries and Pictures of War” are proofs of compromise and submission to a ruling force—that was colonialist and imperialist Japan during that time. Many of the paintings with sugarcoated portrayals of realities as subject matter are scenes of the country sides—women washing clothes by the riverside, farmers planting or harvesting, folk gathering with serene or happy faces, etcetera. There were a few that attempted to depict a more truthful side of the realities happening in a war-torn land, like bombed cities and ruins of buildings, people in chaos, wounded and dead people on the streets—but these seem more of a token and not anything more than that.
An artist needs to survive, but survival need not be in the path towards compromise, betrayal and cowardice. Above all, survival rests on responsibility, and it is the artist’s responsibility to reflect and crystallize the realities and truths of his/her society with the integrity of a fighter siding with the people and not with a few ruling elite.
Because in the final analysis, it is worth asking the elementary question a revolutionary artist once asked: for whom is art?
We were told the story that there was a time that my grandpa worked as an apprentice to Amorsolo and it was during this time that he painted works that were similar to the style of the said master, and when these works were done, Amorsolo would just sign them with his signature. Today I still believe that story is true because judging from the skill with which my grandfather worked on his paintings (a few of his works are still extant and are kept in our house, others are in their clients’ keeping, like the Romualdezes, Marcoses and the Vatican to name a few, and they were few indeed, that’s why my grandpa didn’t get rich as an artist)—some of his paintings were certainly very close to Amorsolo’s technique. Well, in those days, such a ‘fraudulent’ act was quite a normal thing in the ‘master-apprentice’ system. And my grandfather had to learn and earn during those times…
While I reflected on this ‘master-apprentice’ scheme, I came to think that there is a degree of similarity with the patronage system which many artists have been linked with if not dependent on since time immemorial. This similarity has something to do with the obedience or loyalty the artist has to compromise or set aside in favor of the party with the means in order to survive. In the case of my grandfather, he had to swallow his pride and sacrifice his own originality and let his ‘master’ sign the work which he himself labored on to be able to make it in the ‘art world’.
In Amorsolo’s and his contemporaries’ case, they had to sugarcoat the realities of the times they were supposedly portraying and satisfy not their artistic vision and principles but their patron’s wish so as to survive as artists and continue making art even if it entails compromise, if not submission to a dominant power.
Generally, (for me) most if not all of the paintings in the exhibit entitled “Capturing Anxieties: Amorsolo, His Contemporaries and Pictures of War” are proofs of compromise and submission to a ruling force—that was colonialist and imperialist Japan during that time. Many of the paintings with sugarcoated portrayals of realities as subject matter are scenes of the country sides—women washing clothes by the riverside, farmers planting or harvesting, folk gathering with serene or happy faces, etcetera. There were a few that attempted to depict a more truthful side of the realities happening in a war-torn land, like bombed cities and ruins of buildings, people in chaos, wounded and dead people on the streets—but these seem more of a token and not anything more than that.
An artist needs to survive, but survival need not be in the path towards compromise, betrayal and cowardice. Above all, survival rests on responsibility, and it is the artist’s responsibility to reflect and crystallize the realities and truths of his/her society with the integrity of a fighter siding with the people and not with a few ruling elite.
Because in the final analysis, it is worth asking the elementary question a revolutionary artist once asked: for whom is art?
amorsolo, self-portrait
Dominador Castaneda’s work, entitled Doomed Family, 1945 (one of the few works during WW II which portrayed the real horrors of war)
Comments
3 comments
miggy
Jul. 6, 2009 11:00 AM
Anonymous
Jul. 2, 2009 12:05 PM
