Time travel with BenCab

From historical paintings to high-tech interactive displays, National Artist Benedicto Cabrera, better known as BenCab, is isnt’t just everywhere to celebrate his 50 years as an artist. For “BenCab 50 Creative Years,” he is traveling in time from our indigenous and colonial past to our electronic future.

No less than 8 of the most important museums in the Philippines are exhibiting his works this year. A dance musicales have been staged, limited edition figurines have been released, fashion collections have been , and an art book is to be published as part of the celebrations. Of these numerous spectacles, two recently opened that highlighted Cabrera’s past and future.  (WATCH: #ShareBaguio: BenCab: Finding his muse in the highlands)

Blast from the past

On one hand, “BenCab: The Filipino Artist” at the Metropolitan Museum at the Bangko Sentral along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City, open until to January 2016, offers rare gathering of works of master—many borrowed from private collectors and various galleries—that span his 5-decade career as an artist that document not only his own creative evolution but also the history of a nation.

On the walls are indigenous people and sacred bulol statues from the Cordilleras with “Ninuno/Anito” (acrylic on canvas, 2008), and damsels in traditional ternos sporting modern day head phones and music players with Two Filipinas in the Era of Multinationals (acrylic on paper, 1983).

A painting of an overseas Filipino workers from 1970s longing for home entitled Virgilia’s Metamorphosis (acrylic and ink on paper, 1977) contrasts with that of Filipino migrants in America from the 1940’s facing dicrimination with signs that exclaim, “Positively No Filipinos Allowed” in the painting America is in the Heart (oil on canvas, 1987), titled after and inspired by the Carlos Bulosan novel of the same name.

Also making an appearance at Metropolitan are paintings of an unhinged homeless lady with garbage for clothes from the 1960s, today famously known today as the artist’s muse, Sabel.

Besides capturing Philippine history, the exhibit also capture Cabrera’s foray into varius mediums, from the nearly abstract “Monumental Figure” (2010) made of pigmented paper pulp on handmade paper that dried very quickly and required speed, to “Tres Marias” (2006) that needed artisans to cut aluminum panels.

Metropolitan Museum’s BenCab: The Filipino Artist, a breathtaking exhibit beautifully arranged within a generous art space, is a must-see for both the breadth of its scope and quality of its selection.

The Metropolitan Museum of Manila is open from 10am to 5:30pm, Mondays to Saturdays. For inquiries, call (+632) 250-5271, email info@metmuseum.ph, or visit metmuseum.ph. 

In to the future

On the other hand, the exhibit entitled BenCab in Two Movements at the Samsung Digital Gallery at the third floor of the Yuchengco Museum at the corner of Ayala and Buendia Avenues, Makati City, open until January 2016, displays the recent collaborative works of the master illustrated on electronic tablets. Cabrera drew sketches and paintings of  London-based Chinese dancer San Lee, and Polish dancer and choreographer Paulina Wycichowska as they interpreted his works.

Cabrera revealed that he traveled to Warsaw in 2006 to witness the dance inetrpretation himself. His collaboration produced paintings such as Dance Interpretation (acrylic on canvas, 2007), Sayaw Sabel (acrylic on canvas, 2008), and Dance Forms II (relief print on paper, 2010), to name a few.

 

Not only did Cabrera create artworks inspired by their dance performances, his Studies of Dance Movements (2006), a series of 40 ink-on-rice-paper sketches that capture the speed of dance. These were then transformed into an interactive display of Samsung tablets that animate the sketches when touched for the exhibit at the Yuchengco Museum.

Cabrera also hinted that in the future, he plans to draw directly on the tablet for some of his future exhibits. From paint on canvas, to sculptures, to digital paintings on touchsreeens, the artist continues to explore and further his themes.

Yuchengco Museum modernist museum buliding, an acrchitectural masteriece in itself, is the perfect venue for this high tech interactive exhibit. It is a necessary and perfect complement to any retrospective of Cabrera’s works.

The Yuchengco Museum is open from 10am to 6pm, Mondays to Saturdays. For inquiries, call (+632) 889-1234, email info@yuchengcomuseum.org, or visit yuchengcomuseum.org. 

Busy year

Besides these two exhibits, 6 other major galleries feature Cabrera’s works. These include: “Appropriated Souls” on December at the National Museum, Taft Avenue, Ermita, Manila; “Portraits by BenCab” from November to January 2016 at Ayala Museum, Greenbelt Complex, Makati City; “Multiples” print exhibit from June to August 2016 at the  Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Main Gallery, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City; “Frames of Reference: Ex Libris BenCab” book art exhibit from April to June at the Lopez Museum and Library, Exchange Road, Pasig City; “Up Close and Personal” from March to February , “Ode to the Flag” on May 30, and “Madonna” from August to September at the BenCab Museum, Asin Road, Baguio City; and “BenCab Redux” large scale drawing exhibit from October to February 2016 at the Vargas Museum, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman, Quezon City. 

In addition,  Sabel: Love and Passion, a dance musicale, premiered in April at The Theatre of Solaire Resort and Casino, Aseana Ave, Parañaque City; Freeway women’s fashion brand unvieled its BenCab collection, the latest in its National Artist series, in June; BenCab limited-edition, collectible sculptures were released in August by Secret Fresh Gallery, at the Ronac Art Center, Ortigas Avenue, San Juan City;  “Variations of Sabel” sculpture series were turned over in February to the College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman; and “BenCab: The Filipino Artist,” a coffee table art book compiling the works exhibited for “BenCab 50 Creative Years” will be made available at all 8 galleries exhibiting his works. – Rappler.com

For details, visit facebook.com/BenCab50Years.

Writer, graphic designer, and business owner Rome Jorge is passionate about the arts. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of asianTraveler Magazine, Lifestyle Editor of The Manila Times, and cover story writer for MEGA and Lifestyle Asia Magazines, Rome Jorge has also covered terror attacks, military mutinies, mass demonstrations as well as Reproductive Health, gender equality, climate change, HIV/AIDS and other important issues. He is also the proprietor of Strawberry Jams Music Studio.