An untimely, self-indulgent exercise: A Sensual Senselessness
An untimely, self-indulgent exercise:
A Sensual Senselessness
By Cesare A.X. Syjuco
Published in: The Manila Times, October 14, 1987
"COME into my parlor," said the spider to the fly. "You'll never guess who we're having for dinner!"
And if perchance you happen to catch "The Sensuous Eye", a large collection of predominantly vintage paintings at the CCP Main Gallery, it's best to keep in mind that its hefty price, albeit in tiny print, is somewhere on the menu. Do ask the Maitre d' about it before sending your compliments to the chef. You may need more than a seltzer to wash down this exotic visual hors d'oeuvre once you realize we're all paying an arm and a leg to see it through.
That "bill", speaking more than figuratively, is to be paid through the nose in terms of the further depletion of our dwindling artworld resources, and through the thoughtless squandering of valuable time and limited exhibition space. Indeed, it has been said that the country's premiere venue for the visual arts was virtually placed on hold for a number of weeks in preparation for this pointless spectacle, and later, repainted entirely in a lush, trendy hue in order to provide it with a suitable backdrop.
There is no doubt that the resulting presentation is impressive enough, as is most everything that entails great effort and expense. Many of the works by some of our finest artists to date - including those of Manansala, Zobel, Aguinaldo, Medalla, Joya, Luz, Antonio Austria, Bencab, Olazo, Jaime de Guzman, Malang and Sanso - would have made wonderful material for a book, or even for some travelling exhibition to parts unknown. But given the contextual reality in which it has taken shape, this short-lived extravaganza is scandalous to say the least.
To be sure, there was a time and a place for exhibitions of this nature - specifically, in the days of Madame Marcos when her Museum of Philippine Art (MOPA) on T.M. Kalaw Street virtually subsisted on a similar diet of curatorial showboating and myopic hindsight. There was money to burn then, or so we were led to believe, and a huge, well-funded venue specifically set aside for fun, frolic, and elitist reminiscing.
The course of events that followed the February 1986 Revolution only served to complicate an already-regrettable situation. Despite resounding public opinion that favored converting the MOPA into a "liberated" gallery for the use of all Filipino artists, the facility was eventually shut down altogether. And in an obvious attempt to appease a militant artistic community, the MOPA was supposedly fused in spirit with the CCP, making up still a third entity - the Contemporary Art Museum of the Philippines (CAMP).
Whereas the nomenclature is confusing enough either by circumstance or design, the attendant mess in terms of institutional focus is Kafkaesque. CCP, through CAMP, now vacillates between a ministerial role and a judgemental one, shifting from big sister to big stick when convenient.
It is impossible for even the gullible to believe that these two public institutions could have been merged whole into a single entity, even on a rotational basis! Either we have lost half of each or we have lost one of them completely. More likely, we have lost them both in the definition of terms.
Granted that we can now afford to maintain only one major exhibitional venue for our visual artists, it is downright sinful to commit its resources to such inane topical overviews as "The Sensuous Eye", sacrificing the current and the underexposed for dated (if historically significant) works of art. In the very least, someone has gone overboard to illustrate that sensuality abounds in our contemporary artistic heritage - someone, that is, with expensive taste and a queer sense of priorities. And that's precisely the kind of lethal combination that has led this country to the brink of ruin.
Curator, take a bow.
* * *
Cesare A.X. Syjuco, “An untimely, self-indulgent exercise: A Sensual Senselessness” (page 1 of 1), The Manila Times, October 14, 1987
