A day with printmaking legend Manuel Rodriguez Sr., 104

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Center in New York is a key institution for enhancing the good standing of the Philippines in the global community and partners regularly with similar cultural institutions on projects and initiatives that promote Philippine arts and culture.

It houses four important offices: the Philippine Mission to the United Nations, the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry, the Philippine Center Art Gallery and the Philippine Department of Department of Tourism.

For August 2016, we have one of the most memorable cultural programs ever initiated by the Philippine Center: an art exhibit dedicated in honor of maestro Manuel “Mang Maning” Rodriguez Sr., the Father of Printmaking in the Philippines.

Titled “Tribute to Mang Maning,” the show holders hope to have the renowned printmaker personally attend the vernissage, but certain circumstances may prevent his attendance.

After all, Mang Maning is an unsurpassed legend in the field of printmaking, but is 104 years old and currently confined in a Home for the Aged in Hernando, Florida.

Furthermore, his doctors advised his family that he can no longer travel due to his age and poor health.

Nonetheless, he is known as one of the leading modernist painters and printmakers in the Philippines; a consistent award winner in painting and printmaking; a member of the Philippine Art Gallery (PAG) headed by artist/writer Lyd Arguilla; and is included among the distinguished company of Manansala, H.R. Ocampo, Tabuena, Legaspi and other young promising artists of that legendary time.

At present, he still holds a great desire to return and promote graphic arts in the Philippines all the way to the end of his days.

Last May 2016, the officers of the Philippine Center — Rey Cardenas, Vic Cruz and myself — visited him in Florida. We were hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Rene and Linda Gorospe in Hernando, Florida for the interview.

Linda is the daughter of Mang Maning who lives a few blocks away from the Home for the Aged. We requested them to bring Mang Maning to their residence for the interview since it is forbidden to take photographs inside his nursing home and we intended to record the whole thing on video.

Mang Maning was in a good mood when we fetched him. He was so happy to be outside, complaining to us that most of his “students” were always sleeping and doing nothing instead of doing their assignments. Apparently, most of his fellow boarders have become his students in the visual arts.

Later on at his daughter’s house, he felt very relaxed resting on his favorite sofa and carefully observing the paintings on the wall. To our surprise, he could still identify his own paintings with no signs of disorientation, which is present in most people his age.

Seeing him so refreshed and lively (while gorging on his favorite ice cream to boot), I introduced myself as one of his students in printmaking at the College of Fine Arts at the University of Santo Tomas from 1964 to 1965.

I then reminded him that in 1991, he attended my exhibition of paintings at the Philippine Center. He was with other friends of ours, Bert and Eva Florentino.

While mentioning a mutual friend, Romeo Tabuena, who was then living in Mexico, right away he informed me that he met “Romy” and his second wife Niina in San Miguel Allende at their residence. According to Mang Maning, it was a happy reunion full of reminiscences of their years in the Philippine Art Gallery (PAG) since Tabuena never returned home since 1954.

At 104, Mang Maning is still capable of sketching eagerly for visitors (from left) Manuel Baldemor, Linda and Dr. Rene Gorospe, and Rey Cardenas.

I told Mang Maning that I did meet Romy and Nina in San Miguel de Allende recently in 2014 and 2015 when I stayed in Mexico for eight months as an artist-in-residence and held solo art exhibitions in Mexico City, Acapulco, Taxco and Cuernavaca in commemorating the 450-year anniversary of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade.

He felt quite put out and sorrowful when I informed him that both of our friends had passed away in 2015 — Nina in January and Romeo Tabuena, 94, in October at San Miguel de Allende.

While the camera was rolling with Rey Cardenas and Vic Cruz in tow, we were surprised when Mang Maning mentioned Usahay, a Visayan love song that he sang to an old girlfriend named Lourdes from Cebu whom he left behind when he went to Manila to study. Since he raised his own family and became a professional artist, he has never seen Lourdes again and it was only now that he recalled it. I found it especially strange that he would recall such a thing now, but his memory was certainly intact at the time.

Mang Maning even told us that the subjects for his painting “The Boy and the Carabao” was a self-portrait painted during his younger years in Cebu. His mind and recollection of those years seemed so clear that I took the opportunity to hand him a pen and a brush and asked him to sketch something based on his coffee table book, Art of Manuel Rodriguez Sr. I made a quick watercolor painting based on the very same book and he corrected my own lines, rendering it in his own style.

Later on, he produced a number of drawings and paintings based on the first pages of his books. While working, he told a lot of the stories behind his subject matter — the portraits of his daughters, stories about a particular landscape and some funny remarks on his paintings depicting some New York “chicks.”

Vic Cruz, who brought along a book depicting some of his paintings, requested the master to make a Moriones-like drawing on it along with a dedication. Instead, Mang Maning wrote, “To Moriones, best wishes, signed Manuel Rodriguez Sr.” The maestro can still draw and write very well for an old man, but I suppose he has its limits. It was a lot of fun because, by most measures, the man of the hour was still passionate and dedicated to his art wholeheartedly.

I told his daughter Linda that maybe some of her father’s writings and poetry could be published and thus become an inspiration to art students and some promising young artists.

The art of Manuel Rodriguez Sr. is our gift to the world. It is a gift born of the fire of passion and his unwavering devotion to printmaking. I have no doubt this passion will live on in the hearts of his students and admirers. Printmaking will never die, certainly while there is a single breath in Mang Maning’s body, and even long after.