When art enjoys ‘some’ diplomatic immunity
June 13, 2005 | 12:00am
When was the last time that Manila folk were treated to an exhibition of contemporary art from the United States?
If memory serves me right, there was this forgettable show of photographs taken by a group of lensmen on a cross-country journey across the States, which appeared last year in the metropolis’ new home of Mabini art, the Shangri-la Plaza mall along EDSA.
(Frankly, I have yet to be impressed by a single show in that pretentious space on the fourth floor called the Art Plaza – just thinking about how a certain artist exhibiting at the Asia Art Gallery had the temerity to send me press clippings from another paper months back just to prove that his show was worth visiting still gives me the heebiejeebies).
I would much prefer to see the likes of the chameleon Cindy Sherman or the frankly engaging – bordering on exploitative – shots of Larry Clark, thank you, rather than to see such fluff.
But let’s not hold our breath – it will take a very long time before anything like that crosses the Pacific and wades like Douglas MacArthur into our fragrant shores. Diplomacy is all about tit-for-tat tact, and not doing (or showing) anything that might offend the host country. And so it would be difficult to expect the US State Department to acquire edgy work, much less send these pieces as beacons of culture – representing the warm hug and friendly face of America.
And so I must confess that it was not without a hint of jadedness – albeit slathered with a generous helping of curiosity – that I responded to an invitation from the US Embassy to visit the residence of outgoing Ambassador Francis Ricciardone to view the artworks which he and his wife Marie had selected to decorate their home as part of the Art in Embassies Program.
The setting alone was splendid, reminding one of an Amman resort, with large, floor-to-ceiling glass doors framing a series of interconnected cabanas built around an organically shaped swimming pool featuring mosaic fish patterns by National Artist Vicente Manansala. Designed by the renowned architect Gabriel Formoso as a Filipino family’s domicile in the mid-Sixties, the property was acquired by the US government in 1970 and refurbished in 1994.
The guests were the usual suspects in art events of this tenor, some of whom I had a kick overhearing in between sips of wine as they spoke to embassy consuls with such earnestness that it was as if they were being interviewed for their B1/B2 visas!
In any case, a surprising array of works – more than I expected in fact – vied for my attention, although only three merit considerable mention. On top of my list was a most seductive oil on canvas by the expatriate artist Leigh Li-Yun Wen, "Untitled XII," whose painting of gently lapping waves arrived at through a difficult process of layering dark pigments over white, followed by engravings of intersecting, shifting and undulating lines over the surface, had an absolutely mesmeric effect on all of those I spoke to who saw it.
I was also deeply affected by the opuses of the glass artists Dale Chihuly and Josh Simpson: The former represented by a freeform biomorph of a vessel in red, its lip edged in black ending in a thread-like embellishment that was admirable for carrying off panache with seeming insouciance; the latter creating mini-worlds embedded with lichen-shaped plant forms and frothy crepuscules in a dazzling array of colors.
A lot of purely decorative artworks, of course, figured in the display; but I am not really much of a flower person, so I will just end here.
Leaving certain things unsaid is perhaps the most diplomatic way to express an opinion.
While we’re caught up in the diplomatic swirl, kindly indulge me by allowing this shameless plug for another show, which was co-organized by the museum where I work, the Offices of the Ateneo de Manila University President, the Dean of the School of Humanities, and the Embassy of Romania in Manila. It inaugurated our Engage program which, for the first time, allows works by overseas artists to be exhibited alongside works by modern Philippine masters from the Ateneo Art Gallery’s permanent collection
Outside of Dracula, Nadia Comaneci, and the ill-starred Ceaucescus (if only our own tyrannical duo suffered the same fate), Filipinos know very little about Romania, and vice-versa. This project seeks to bridge the gap between two distinctive yet similar cultures by creating a locus for discourse: Our shared language of modernism.
Pictura Romaneasca Contemporana is on view until July 8. Do come and see it!
For feedback, e-mal rlerma@ateneo.edu.
If memory serves me right, there was this forgettable show of photographs taken by a group of lensmen on a cross-country journey across the States, which appeared last year in the metropolis’ new home of Mabini art, the Shangri-la Plaza mall along EDSA.
(Frankly, I have yet to be impressed by a single show in that pretentious space on the fourth floor called the Art Plaza – just thinking about how a certain artist exhibiting at the Asia Art Gallery had the temerity to send me press clippings from another paper months back just to prove that his show was worth visiting still gives me the heebiejeebies).
I would much prefer to see the likes of the chameleon Cindy Sherman or the frankly engaging – bordering on exploitative – shots of Larry Clark, thank you, rather than to see such fluff.
But let’s not hold our breath – it will take a very long time before anything like that crosses the Pacific and wades like Douglas MacArthur into our fragrant shores. Diplomacy is all about tit-for-tat tact, and not doing (or showing) anything that might offend the host country. And so it would be difficult to expect the US State Department to acquire edgy work, much less send these pieces as beacons of culture – representing the warm hug and friendly face of America.
And so I must confess that it was not without a hint of jadedness – albeit slathered with a generous helping of curiosity – that I responded to an invitation from the US Embassy to visit the residence of outgoing Ambassador Francis Ricciardone to view the artworks which he and his wife Marie had selected to decorate their home as part of the Art in Embassies Program.
The setting alone was splendid, reminding one of an Amman resort, with large, floor-to-ceiling glass doors framing a series of interconnected cabanas built around an organically shaped swimming pool featuring mosaic fish patterns by National Artist Vicente Manansala. Designed by the renowned architect Gabriel Formoso as a Filipino family’s domicile in the mid-Sixties, the property was acquired by the US government in 1970 and refurbished in 1994.
The guests were the usual suspects in art events of this tenor, some of whom I had a kick overhearing in between sips of wine as they spoke to embassy consuls with such earnestness that it was as if they were being interviewed for their B1/B2 visas!
In any case, a surprising array of works – more than I expected in fact – vied for my attention, although only three merit considerable mention. On top of my list was a most seductive oil on canvas by the expatriate artist Leigh Li-Yun Wen, "Untitled XII," whose painting of gently lapping waves arrived at through a difficult process of layering dark pigments over white, followed by engravings of intersecting, shifting and undulating lines over the surface, had an absolutely mesmeric effect on all of those I spoke to who saw it.
I was also deeply affected by the opuses of the glass artists Dale Chihuly and Josh Simpson: The former represented by a freeform biomorph of a vessel in red, its lip edged in black ending in a thread-like embellishment that was admirable for carrying off panache with seeming insouciance; the latter creating mini-worlds embedded with lichen-shaped plant forms and frothy crepuscules in a dazzling array of colors.
A lot of purely decorative artworks, of course, figured in the display; but I am not really much of a flower person, so I will just end here.
Leaving certain things unsaid is perhaps the most diplomatic way to express an opinion.
Outside of Dracula, Nadia Comaneci, and the ill-starred Ceaucescus (if only our own tyrannical duo suffered the same fate), Filipinos know very little about Romania, and vice-versa. This project seeks to bridge the gap between two distinctive yet similar cultures by creating a locus for discourse: Our shared language of modernism.
Pictura Romaneasca Contemporana is on view until July 8. Do come and see it!
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