The prince and the poet: Botong and the ultimate collector
MANILA, Philippines - Manila in the 1950s was, quite simply, another time and another place. Glittering, glamorous, Manila was part Vegas, part L.A. Confidential, peopled by hardy entrepreneurs, some say, even buccaneers, who had walked through the flames of World War II and triumphed.
The country was bursting with optimism as well as a steadfast Filipino pride. The future was there for the taking. Men were making matches made in heaven with Miss Universe, couturiers like Ramon Valera and Salvacion “Slim” Lim were confecting visions fit for the Paris runways, and a revolving-door of celebrities from Tyrone Power, Gregory Peck (think Roman Holiday!), Orson Welles, to William Randolph Hearst and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor populated the Manila society pages, while the local business aristocracy would routinely make it to Time Magazine. Sleek skyscrapers, housing nightclubs, theaters, as well as bustling multinational offices, jostled side by side to fill the skyline.
On this stage walked titans — who, for that time and place filled with the extraordinary, were not so different from everyone else. Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco began his career as an illustrator for empires that sold millions of copies a day. He also designed movie sets and costumes for the elaborate epics directed by Manuel Conde (our very own equivalent to Daryl Zanuck). He also created TV backdrops for an old friend and fellow basketball-playing buddy, Aurelio “AG” (originally “Auring”) Gomez Palileo who lived in neighboring town of Pagsanjan, Laguna. These two met sometime in 1940 time when both were attending the University of the Philippines. “AG” was in law school at the time.
Botong shot to fame with his murals — the most famous landing him a two-page spread in 1953 in Newsweek for the Philippine International Fair. He was moving from triumph to triumph, and had become the country’s very own Diego Rivera. He was painting up a storm, creating masterpieces for City Hall, the Philippine General Hospital, as well as dozens of exuberant commissions for the spanking-new Manila cityscape.
Dubbed the “Poet of Angono,” for the sleepy, lakeside-fishing town which soon attracted a bevy of other artistic leading lights, including Manansala. Botong soon became most famous for his creation of a Filipino iconography — landscapes inhabited on one hand, by a pantheon of heroes from Bonifacio and Rizal — to their everyman equivalents in ricefields, mountain terraces, as well as lowland rituals. His works were all painstaking researched. Botong kept a scrapbook where he detailed the lore and legends of Angono; and according to his last apprentice, Salvador “Badong” Juban he also studiously collected artifacts from the various Filipino tribes and never began a work without first immersing himself in research.
Botong was the chief architect of the vision of the proud Malay, un-subjugated by any colonial power. One of his most powerful examples would be the “Nose Flute,” commissioned not surprisingly by his pal AG Palileo. “AG” had himself risen to become an iconic adman, at the helm of the pioneering agency AdCraft Philippines. He was clearly a character straight out of Madison Avenue’s Mad Men. An advertising man when the profession was just starting out, “AG” also believed in the potential, nay, the present tense of the Filipino. He quickly became a tourism guru, putting his powers of persuasion to good use to promote the Philippines as well as his roster of gems such as the legendary Manila Hotel but also the entire industries of tour operators and travel agencies, both also then in their infancy. Among other assignments, AG helped promote the Miss Manila contest, which featured one of its most beautiful queens — a certain Imelda Romualdez, later Mrs. Ferdinand Edralin Marcos. During his reign as the founder of Adcraft Philippines in the 1940s and ’50s, Palileo crafted marketing campaigns for companies in the Philippines, Japan, and Thailand, making him a true regional star.
No two men could be more alike — and unlike. Both Botong and AG shared a taste for the simple things in life: their love of art and country; basketball; Sunday afternoons with their families swaying in hammocks, Filipino food (and plenty of it!) and a playful sense of humor. However, while “AG” would think nothing of jetting around the globe, Botong was the stay-at-home, even passing up the chance to study Diego Rivera’s works in Mexico City because he was so loathe to leave Angono. Yet, both remained fiercely proud of their country in their own ways. The Philippines certainly was the richer, thanks to the intertwined journeys and contributions of these two friends.
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For information on the artwork, e-mail nakpilart@gmail.com or +63920-9701539 or visit www.larasati.com.
