Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
NOW, let me tell you why I want to write about one of the august buildings around the Padang of Singapore, a historic place and ceremonial ground in that island republic. Padang means field in Bahasa Melayu, and the building I am referring to is the National Gallery Singapore, the only gallery and museum outside of our archipelago that regularly and consistently presents to the world works by Filipinos. Dr. Eugene Tan, the director, is a brilliant but humble and self-effacing man who has given Filipino artists the chance to show their prodigious talents in Southeast Asia's First World economy.
Clarissa Chikiamco, a Filipina, is the curator there who helps bring Philippine art to the world and who is completely immersed in the study of art, from dawn to dusk. She is a famous face, regularly appearing in social media to broadcast what the National Gallery Singapore has that we should be appreciating here. A recent addition is Patrick Flores who joined the National Gallery as deputy director of Curatorial and Research; our loss but Singapore's gain. Patrick is a well-known curator here in the Philippines; he has a PhD, was a professor and former chairman of the Department of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines.
Besides hiring highly educated Filipinos to work for them, the National Gallery has exhibited, acquired and published research on artworks by Philippine artists alongside works by other artists from Southeast Asia and beyond. The gallery provides a regional and international hub to display, understand and appreciate Philippine art.
In 2015, the gallery included National Artist Fernando Amorsolo's work entitled "Marketplace During the Occupation" in its "My Masterpiece" series. A notable chef, Willin Low, was invited to talk about the impact on him of Amorsolo's works which showed Filipinos in a market during the Japanese period.
In 2016, the gallery opened its groundbreaking international co-curated exhibition with Centre Pompidou entitled "Reframing Modernism." That was its first international special exhibition and it included another Amorsolo, the idealized interpretation of the First Mass. Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo's 19th century masterpiece, "Las virgenes cristianas expuestas al populacho" (Christian virgins exposed to the populace) was exhibited alongside the works of Fauvist Henri Matisse and Georges Braque, the precursor of cubism. The juxtaposition of artworks in the exhibit highlighted the parallel development of Southeast Asian art with its European counterparts.
In 2017, the National Gallery went through great lengths to secure from the Museo del Prado of Spain by way of loan, Juan Luna's "La Muerte de Cleopatra" (The Death of Cleopatra), which won the silver medal in the 1881 National Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid. Although the painting was not exhibited in the Philippines, Singapore was close enough for Filipino art lovers to fly there just to see Luna's painting. The gallery also published a thick back-to-back catalogue of Juan Luna's works with Raden Saleh's, a prominent Javanese painter of the same period.
At the height of the Covid pandemic in 2022, the National Gallery exhibited the Philippine's first full-length animated film entitled "Tadhana" by Nonoy Marcelo. Dengcoy Miel, a famous Filipino artist in Singapore, delivered a talk after the film showing.
The National Gallery has an extensive collection of works by well-known Filipino artists whose names appear in the Who's Who list of Philippine Art. As of last year, there are 160 works of artists from the Philippines in the gallery's collection. The standards set by the Singaporean government for the inclusion of a work of art in its collection are very stringent. We can be sure that the Philippine collection is representative of our country's best and most talented artists through the centuries.
Recently, the National Gallery of Singapore opened an exhibit which showcases video installations of Southeast Asia, a two-part series that shows the pivotal moments when video installation emerged as an art form in the 1980s. As a Filipino, I am proud that the earliest video artwork in the whole of Southeast Asia is given a prominent place in the exhibit. This is the work of Johnny Manahan, a multi-awarded Filipino artist. Mr. Manahan is also a famous Filipino television director, a Thirteen Artists awardee and once represented the Philippines in the Paris Biennale.
The works of another Filipino artist, Jean Marie Syjuco, are also on display together with those of other Southeast Asian artists. The exhibition will run up to September 2023.
There are other reasons why this column is about the National Gallery Singapore instead of the usual stuff I churn out on international crimes, murder, arson and other bloodcurdling acts that expose the gory side of human nature. Call it a guilty conscience because we do not see paintings done by a Singaporean in our museums and galleries, or that the only Singaporean artist I know is the imaginative Joell Ang, whose highly creative graphic designs are a wonder to behold. I am embarrassed, stricken with shame, so this humble essay is just my way of acknowledging the kind attention and honor given to Filipino artists by that great and grand National Gallery on the Padang.