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In a milestone event for Philippine art, both high art and popular media were celebrated in one evening as two books and an exhibit on muralist Carlos “Botong” Francisco and komiks illustrator Francisco V. Coching were launched last December 11 at the National Museum.
The Life and Art of Botong Francisco and The Life and Art of Francisco Coching feature essays written by noted scholars, pieces written by the artists' family members, and a comprehensive image collection of their works.
Edited by Patrick Flores and published by Vibal Foundation, Inc. (VFI), the jointly-released books mark the first time the artists have been presented side-by-side as creators of a visual language that re-envisioned Philippine history. The inaugurated exhibit Telling Modern Time: The Life and Art of Botong Francisco Coching—curated by Flores and boasting rarely-seen sketches, prints, komiks excerpts and memorabilia—also historically enshrined the pop art of komiks among Filipino cultural treasures at the National Museum.
Images of beauty and power
A companion documentary likewise entitled Telling Modern Time also premiered at the event. Highlighted by interviews with artists, scholars, curators and relatives of Botong and Coching, the 12-minute film expounded on how the two presented “images that mirror the best of who we are” while the nation recovered in the aftermath of World War II and colonization.
“We are forever indebted for the images of beauty and power that your fathers passed on to the nation,” VFI Executive Director Gaspar A. Vibal told the Francisco and Coching families during the launch. He said that Botong's and Coching's art, created from “post-war nothingness,” articulated both the depths of the Filipino's loss and the greatness of his resolve.
Close to heart
While the books and movie invited people to further understand the grandness of what Botong and Coching achieved, the exhibit allowed those at the launch—national artists and amateur dabblers, professors and politicians, family members and mere fans—to rediscover appreciation for their work.
“I used to read all [Coching's] komiks behind my mother's back when I was a little girl,” said former Tourism Secretary and Heritage Conservation Society head Gemma Cruz-Araneta, one of several luminaries who attended the event.
“It's so nostalgic,” she said, perusing the komiks displays. “I'm looking for all the stories I used to enjoy.”
Another person who roamed the exhibit hall with visible awe was Lourdes Asprec, a nurse and recreational painter who visited the exhibit along with her sister, a docent at the National Museum.
“Botong Francisco is very close to my heart because I'm from the Philippine General Hospital and our lobby has his murals on the history of medicine,” she said. “I’m surprised because I knew [he painted] in oil but it’s the first time I saw that [he] painted in watercolors—and for me, it's even harder to paint [that way].”
“We've been looking forward to this exhibit,” she added.
Telling Modern Time will be open at the fifth floor of the National Museum until January 2010. Hardbound editions of The Life and Art of Botong Francisco (Php 2,300), The Life and Art of Francisco Coching (Php2,000) and the limited edition box set Telling Modern Time: The Life and Art of Botong Francisco Coching (Php5,000) that includes the exhibit catalog will soon be available at major bookstores nationwide.
Botong FRANCISCO Coching editor Patrick Flores signs a book.
Images taken by Aldwin Cabiao Anna Morquicillo. Some rights reserved. (Click images for captions)
See also: Vibal Publishing House website.
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The following photos by Dennis Villegas. Some rights reserved.
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