The Philippine Online Chronicles

Philippine history is colorful, exciting, sorrowful and strange. One would not quite know what to make of it right away. It's so fantastic that it could have been dreamed up by a novelist on drugs or a sinister genius, giving the nation one of the world's richest heritages, prime material for its creative minds to use in weaving their tales and crafting their works of art.

With a past rife with tragedy, persecution, salvation, alliances and betrayals, all set in a landscape both picturesque and savage, it is a trial and an adventure for Filipino artists to delve into, bringing to the fore one of the most pressing issues that plagues Filipinos and other former colonies―national identity.

This issue has been addressed directly or obliquely by artists in various media: from Juan Luna's Romanesque Spoliarium to Carlos “Botong” Francisco's vivid murals of Katipuneros in action and from Fernando Amorsolo's radiant, oil-on-canvas depictions of rice planting to Francisco V. Coching's bold ink strokes showing very Filipino characters having swashbuckling adventures set among local flora and fauna.

However, the works of these old-timers are no longer well-known, despite their great impact on the current state of art. Like the history they explored, their works have been mostly reduced to shadows flitting in young people's minds. A mere flash of recognition, a vague idea.

To rekindle interest in these almost forgotten works, Vibal Foundation, Inc. (VFI) introduces two new additions to its Art Series of books: The Life and Art of Francisco Coching and The Life and Art of Botong Francisco. The best thing about these books? “They put together high and low art, elevating the 'bakya' (common) to the pantheon of Filipino aesthetic and visual culture,” said foundation director Gaspar A. Vibal.

VFI is the nonprofit arm of Vibal Publishing House Inc., a company best known for producing textbooks in the elementary and high school levels. VFI specializes in knowledge―its preservation and distribution--hence its various print and website projects.

These books, to be launched at the National Museum's Marble Hall on December 11, are the most comprehensive books published so far about these two great artists, featuring essays on their life and art written by respected scholars and including first-hand accounts by family members. We are given the opportunity to hear about Botong from his grandson, Carlos “Totong” Francisco II, and to study Coching's art through the eyes of his fans, via letters sent to him at the peak of his career.

The books are edited by art historian and museum curator Patrick Flores, who holds a deep respect for the the two artists. He is also among the members of the local art community who believe Coching should be included on the roster of Philippine National Artists.

The two had a great sense of the epic, Flores says, “Because of this sense of the epic, they were able to create continuity in history. At the same time, because of this sense of continuity, they were interested in ruptures in history, like struggles against the colonial forces, moving towards the modern. They played up the turning points in history as they told this sprawling story of Philippine culture."

"Ang gusto ko sa kanila (What I liked best about them), they attempted to create a popular visual language, both of them. Coching through comics, which is really a popular medium. And then Botong through his murals, which addresses a public, a large public, because murals are meant to be placed in a public place. They explored a popular language that would cut across the Philippine audience."

While the two frequently portrayed scenes of struggle and persecution, he notes, their subjects and characters were always dignified.

"The heroic, it's always called upon every time, in every situation, let us say inequity. The heroic response is always anticipated. Sa tingin ko naman timeless iyon, na kung dehado ang tao or agrabyado, naghahanap ng paraan na mabago ang ganung kondisyon. (I think that's timeless, that if the person is having difficulty or is being aggravated, he finds ways to change his condition.)” This, Flores says, is a universal disposition.

There are a lot of things young people today don't know about these two artists, Flores laments. The most important thing was that they didn't aspire to be big, important people. They loved their work and didn't put on airs. A relevant thing to consider “in this world of too much competition in the art world." They were also multidisciplinary, he adds, with Coching being a novelist at the same time he was an illustrator and Botong working in the movies as a scriptwriter and production designer.

People have to be reminded of their bodies of work, he says, thus VFI is sponsoring an exhibit starting December 11, 2009 to January 2010 at the National Museum. Entitled Telling Modern Time, the exhibit will showcase several works by the artists and aims to give a focused view of their work in the popular context, dealing with comics, cinema, popular literature and iconography, Flores says.

"Coching and Botong tell the story of Philippine history or culture [via their bodies of work]. By doing that, they tell time. They mark time through narrative and through characters, through situations. It's modern because it's self-conscious of that history, they're conscious that we have to look back on that history and they're conscious about the need to create a certain future. This sense of time is modern in the sense that it's self-conscious,” Flores says.

Television has already primed the local populace on the return of old komiks, what with several remakes of Darna and Dyesebel on the small screen by local networks. According to Flores, while this phenomenon opens up a new discourse due to the difference between print and broadcast media, it could mean that komiks are still part of the cultural unconscious. “Bakit nag-aappeal pa rin iyon sa kanila, kahit siguro may ibang twist na iyan (Why it still appeals to viewers, even though there may have been different twists to it than in the comics)? Maybe there are some characters, some situations that recur because Filipinos could still identify with them. It depends on how well the teleserye transforms the original komiks. There was already an intervention, in terms of medium, in terms of sensibility.”

These books are not the first in VFI's Art Series―it launched in 2007 Fabian de la Rosa and His Times, a coffee table book detailing the famous painter's life and works. In addition to releasing the two books and holding the exhibit, VFI has also republished El Indio in all black and white glory.

Image courtesy of VFI Archives.