Philippine Art '86: The year in review
Philippine Art '86: The year in review
By Cesare A.X. Syjuco
Published in: The Manila Times, December 24, 1986
1986 was The Year of the Tiger. And it roared long after the wolf had gone.
Philippine Art was rocked to its roots by the changing of the guard, set adrift in the maelstrom of socio-political upheaval. Prominent art- world figures who had cast their lot with the dying Marcos regime — affixing their signatures on a document of affirmation and support now popularly known as “the notorious COWARD Manifesto” — found themselves in hot water after the February revolt. The cry for a total revamp of artworld hierarchies was deafening, and those who had previously flaunted their alliance with the fallen dictatorship dug deep for shelter and buried their heads in the dirt.
It was March, and already, the game was in play. The balimbing syndrome reared its ugly head early in this new inning of shifting balances. While the COWARD Manifesto had indelibly stigmatized its signatories, their wilier kin had wisely reserved comment pending the resolution of the February Crisis, choosing to remain “unaligned” for precisely such an eventuality. Everywhere, artists who had been openly supportive of the past administration underwent a sudden change of color, vocal in their belated condemnation of the repressive regime after it had already been dismantled.
Taking the lead, professional enforcers at the sequestered Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) were quick to deny any affiliation with the Marcoses and their mind-boggling extravagances — much like the executioner who throws the blame on Meralco. Some had the audacity to identify themselves as “closest revolutionaries”, an absurdity that was shamelessly perverse, hilarious but for the fact that many of them would eventually succeed at this gross deception.
The mammoth exhibit “Piglas: Art at the Crossroads” was probably the single most significant artworld activity for 1986. Organized by visual artists as a mass action protest prior to the nationwide uprising, it had been nipped in the bud by the unexpected events of February, and had been reset for April as an expanded celebration project. The CCP was chosen as the new venue, and despite some resistance from militant quarters on the grounds that “Piglas” would serve to “deodorize” the Cultural Center and its Imelda appointed administrators, the organizers of the exhibit nevertheless welcomed the opportunity to symbolically liberate the dictatorship's cultural seat of power. As anticipated, “Piglas” was an enormous success, a virtual free-for-all that was lauded by both the local and foreign press as a cultural milestone, and which inspired an endless string of similar activities through the remainder of 1986.
The MOPA Question, an overblown controversy inspired by the alleged maneuverings of the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) to gain administrative control over the sequestered Museum of Philippine Art (MOPA) on Roxas Boulevard, was the centerstage for a new but shortlived era in the exciting realm of Pinoy artworld politics. A vigilante group of concerned artists had emerged as a formidable bloc to oppose the AAP move, supposedly spearheaded by Art Association president Ed Castillo. Heated exchanges were magnified into a full-scale brouhaha in the press, and the vigilantes opted to formally organize the Visual Arts Community for the Reorganization of MOPA (VACRM). Hoping to overthrow the curatorial stranglehold that had made the museum notoriously elitist in the days of the Marcos regime, the founding members of VACRM had proposed the holding of intercommunity elections to determine its officers, as well as a concerted program to transform MOPA into a liberated center for artists. Unfortunately, very little was actually achieved by VACRM, short of holding luncheon dialogues and a few pocket conventions, and the issues it had sought to espouse were drowned out in so much talk.
Meanwhile, back at the CCP, the likeable Lucrecia Kasilag was offered up as a sacrificial lamb, replaced first by a rumor, and then by a decidedly less-charismatic Bing Roxas. With Kasilag led out to pasture, the omnipotent Cultural Center was said to have been purged of its past sins — arrogance, elitism, extravagance among these. In reality, short of favoring a rabidly nationalistic attitude, very little had actually changed at the CCP. The old enforcers remained at the helm, and basically the same curatorial policies favored its original pool of exhibiting artists.
Truly, 1986 was less notable for any individual artworld achievements than for its explosive influence on the course of future directions. Social Realism, once a stouthearted undercurrent of passionate fervor, was elevated to the status of a heroic genre, celebrated and aped into a virtual “Catch 22” extinction. Likewise, the euphoria of the February Revolution inspired a madcap wave of celebrational artworks dominated by mundane images of birds in flight, severed chains and barbed wire, and other topical symboils of national liberation.
Although the events of February were bloodless, some of its unfortunate casualties included the established art galleries, long the foundations of local contemporary art. Once-prestigious concerns such as the Gallery Genesis in Mandaluyong and Pinaglabanan Galleries in San Juan — probably suffering irreparable damage through a dramatic drop in funding and attendance — now appear to struggle for their very existence as credible establishments through lacklustre exhibits that are a far cry from their glory days of yore. Showrooms like Rustan’s Galerie Bleue in Makati have become little more than retail outlets for artworld riff-raff barely subsisting on consignment sales and a rapidly dwindling clientele. And many of the traditional art houses — including the historic Sining Kamalig on Taft Avenue — have been committed to memory as terminal victims of the dying art trade.
What is in store for Philippine Art in 1987 will depend greatly on how well we ourselves fare as a people in crisis. God grant us all a second wind. (To be continued)
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Cesare A.X. Syjuco, “Philippine Art ‘86: The year in review” (page 1 of 1), The Manila Times, December 24, 1986
