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| WALL-TO-WALL ART. Filipinana paintings done in the so-called Mabini School style fill the walls of Serafin Serna's studio |
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For over 80 years now, the 2-kilometer street located in
once-genteel Ermita has been the nexus of touristy and artistic
activities—Mabini Street---which, in its heyday, teemed with art galleries and shops, making
it Manila’s most colorful alley.
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| MABINI STREET AT NIGHT. 1957 |
Mabini was known in the late 1800s as Calle Nueva, and,
like Calle Real (now known as M.H. del
Pilar St.) ran straight and parallel to the bay, starting from Wallace Field in
the north and ending at the Pasay boundary. Back then, the Ermita-Malate
district was peopled with Manila families from the principalia class, along with many Spanish and Spanish mestizo
residents. After the 1860s, Ermita expanded as a suburb, along the main calles of Real and Nueva, which provided
Manila with an important link to the Cavite harbors where the galleons landed.
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MUSLIM COUPLE, by Crispin V. Lopez (1903-1985). From the Collection of
Øcsalev Thor, Used with permission.
|
When the Americans came, they too were drawn to the quiet
dignity and exclusivity of the suburb which characterized the uppity
residential streets—Calle Nuevo included. Renamed during the American
occupation as A. Mabini St. to memorialize the “brains of the Revolution”, the
street slowly began its transition as a shopping destination, along with the
Escolta and the walled city of Intramuros.
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| DAVID MEDALLA AT WORK AT HIS MABINI STUDIO. |
By the 1930s, as the country opened its doors to the
world, Manila’s population swelled to include international residents and
visitors. Hotels, serviced apartments, posh homes and clubs sprouted along the
area. Joining the Germans, Dutch, Swiss
and English traders were the Americans and their families—soldiers, teachers,
diplomats, government officials, businessmen, adventure seekers, and
tourists—whose fascination with our
exotic islands stimulated a demand for manufactured cultural souvenirs
to send back home as gifts and travel mementos.
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| BARRIO STREET. Gabriel Custodio. |
Mabini St. and its peripheries became the go-to place for
such tourist souvenirs. The Little Home Shop ran by the Metcalfs on 676 A.
Mabini was one of the first shops to offer “a treasure trove for the seeker of
the unusual”. It carried everything from Moro brassware, embroidered piña and
Igorot dresses. Nearby was Philippine Shell-Craft that created stunning
remembrances of shell and mother-of-pearl. Also just a walk away, on 620
Mabini, was Manila Art Craft that specialized in reptile leather goods, trays, cards,
candy boxes and other novelties.
The war decimated much of Ermita, but when peace settled
in the country and rebuilding went underway, the proud district rose from the
ashes with a renewed sense of optimism.
With the promise of independence fulfilled in 1946, the new country
continued its spree of reconstruction and rehabilitation.
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HARVEST TIME, By Serafin Serna. He trained under Prof. Teodoro Buenaventura before enrolling at
the U.P. Fine Arts. His biggest commission was decorating the Philippine Pavilion at the New York’s
World’s Fair with murals and brass sculptures in 1964. Øcsalev Thor Collection, used with permission. |
Mabini St. attracted artists like Paombong-born Miguel
Geronimo Galvez Sr., to open his own visual arts shop in 1949. Galvez had honed
his painting skills as a sit-in student of Prof. Teodoro Buenaventura at the
U.P. college of Fine Arts along Taft Avenue. Simon Saulog, from Imus, also
located his studio cum shop along Mabini.
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| STARTING THEM YOUNG. Art along Mabini St.. 1952. |
The early artists that gravitated towards this street
painted in the realist tradition—led by such names as Galvez and Saulog, plus
Ben Alano, Fermin Sanchez, Cesar Amorsolo, Jose Bumanlag David, Elias Laxa, Romeo
Enriquez and Gabriel Custodio. Like master
Fernando Amorsolo, the conservatives painted idyllic pastoral scenes,
landscapes and ruralscapes, nipa huts set against mountain backdrops or rice fields,
and other folkloric themes. Abiding by tradition, they painted what they saw--
the more real, the better.
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Left: YOUNG RAJAH, by Jose Bumanlag David, 1955. The works of this Pampanga artist was often featured on
the pages of Graphic Magazine in the 1920s. Left: T’BOLI ELDER. By Fortunato Jervoso. Pasay-born Jervoso
learned painting via the International Correspondence School , Philadelphia from 1934-37. Alex Castro Collection. |
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BATHING BEAUTY, by Victor T. Cabrera. 1956. This U.P. educated artist
trained with Vicente Manansalaand Antonio Dumlao. His works--landscapes,
portraits, historical paintings--were characterized by " a silky, finished quality",
evident in this painting.Alex R.Castro Collection. |
The distant Far East from a Western
perspective was always imagined as exotic, wild and tropical, an isolated part
of the world—with swaying palm trees, bare-breasted island women, mysterious
Mohammedans and mountain folks. These conceptions were consistent with the imageries
that Mabini artists managed to deftly capture on their canvasses. Tourists,
with tastes far different from art connoisseurs, snapped up these artworks,
simply as remembrances of their Philippine experience. Not only where these
paintings affordable, but the paintings were also portable to hand-carry home.
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| SIDEWALK ART EXHIBIT. Mabini St. 1952. |
“Commercial fine
arts”, was a term first used by Fabian de la Rosa to describe art associated with advertising—billboards,
illustrations, magazine covers. It would later come to refer as well to the
products of the “Mabini School”, meant to be sold and generate money. Anybody
with a fairly good hand could churn out paintings of the same style and
hackneyed Filipinana themes. As expected, academically-trained artists and
aficionados of high art thumbed their noses at these creations—hastily done,
painted in multiples, and cheaply priced.
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MARANAO FISHERMEN. By Romeo Enriquez, 1953. A much sought after portraitist,
Enriquez established his studio-gallery along Mabini St.
Øcsalev Thor Collection. Used with permission. |
No matter, the demand of tourists for commercial fine
arts intensified during this period. Mabini St. assumed a bohemian air of some
sort, as classicists and the rising modernists congregated in the area. The
convergence would eventually lead to a clash in 1955, when, in a contest
mounted by the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP), the modernists won
over the conservatives, prompting a walk-out of some 20 realist painters. They
also won the support of non-AAP members who join them in their outdoor shows in
front of Manila Hotel, that elicited much attention from the public.
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| BANCA RIDE,Oscar T. Navarro. 1964. Alex Castro Collection. |
Indeed, times were changing in the city’s landscape too.
By the end of the 50s, the offbeat color of Mabini—often likened to New Yorks’
Greenwich Village—was starting to pale in its appeal. Alongside residences,
quaint souvenir shops and art galleries arose in quick profusion, an amalgam of
dress shops, 3rd rate motels, cocktail lounges, sleazy bars and
unsightly tenement buildings and barong-barongs. But the artists stayed on,
both the good, the bad and the downright phony.
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| LAPU-LAPU AND BULAKNA, by Rod Pasno. 1960s. |
The output was more commercialized—velvet nude paintings
that American servicemen favored, copies of famous European paintings (Da
Vincis’s Mona Lisa, Last Supper), his ‘n hers ethnic kitsch (Rajah & Rani,
Lakan & Lakambini, Moro & Mora, Igorot & Igorota) and Tiki crafts
to decorate American dens and bars. Aesthetic rules could also be broken, based
on the dictates of the buying customer. Thanks to the promotion of tourism,
Mabini art—despite its reputation as cheap souvenir art for the tourist
trade—enjoyed a ready, and steady market.
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ISLAND GIRL, by Ben Alano, 1952. Alano maintained a studio in Ermita
for over 20 years. Øcsalev Thor Collection, used with permission.
|
True talents—in the persons of Paco Gorospe, Salvador
Cabrera (Bencab’s brother), Roger San Miguel, and Leonardo Zablan, would emerge
from this 60s decade, representing the second generation of Mabini painters
with exceptional skills that were yet to be recognized. Galleries continued to
proliferate in the area—Gorospe, Zablan and Lopez had theirs along Mabini—which
gained major patronage from hotels, embassies and corporate buildings in need
of interior decoration.
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| SUMMER FIELDS, Isidro Ancheta, 1904. |
Pistang Pilipino (later, Sining Pilipino) a one-stop
commercial arts and crafts center with 200 stalls, was put up along Mabini in
the 80s, and carried many souvenir paintings of Filipino artists, in varying
grades of finish and quality. These
artists, many of whom remained nameless, constituted the third wave of Mabini painters
that began painting in the 70s through the 90s.
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| MABINI STREET IN 1957. |
The political turmoil and the economic instability of the
mid 80s dealt a severe blow to Philippine tourism, and Malate-Ermita business
felt the impact more than any other district. Alternative commercial centers like
Greenhills and Makati drew more “quality” crowds as opposed to Mabini, which suffered
from its ‘red light district’ image.
Regular crackdowns on illicit trades didn’t help in hastening Mabini’s
decline. Many art galleries closed, and while Pistang Pilipino remained open
until 1995 and then relocated, its business was never the same again.
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| MANOBO ELDER. By Crispin Agno. 1955. Alex R. Castro Collection. |
But just when everyone thought that Mabini art was on its
way out, a new breed of art aficionados
began rediscovering them in other parts of the world with the advent of the the
internet in the mid-1990s. Filipiniana paintings from the mid-century and older began
appearing in online museums as well as international selling sites, gaining a
core group of patrons, mostly overseas Filipinos.
GALLERY ON THE STREET, 1957.
It must be recalled
that in the course of 50 or so years,
thousands of these Mabini paintings made their way to other countries, especially
the United States, where they either hung in homes or stashed away for keeping,
passed on to descendants, to be recovered in estate, garage sales, auctions,
and flea markets.
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GRAND OLD LADY. By Miguel Galvez, 1937. Miguel left Paombong to work in the household of
his uncle-artist PrOf. Teodoro Buenaventura, who enrolled him at the U.P. Fine Arts. He was the
first artist to open a studio on Mabini St. in 1949. |
International online selling sites like ebay.com and liveauctioneers.com regularly offered vintage Philippine
paintings as early as the late 80s, posted by sellers who picked such pieces
from rummage and yard sales, and sold outright or thru bidding.
From a few dollars, the prices for these Philippine
works have quickly escalated to
hundreds, even up to thousands of dollars. A quick check on ebay’s current
inventory (as of July 2018), features a 24” x 20” Simon Saulog 1959 painting of
a Filipina gathering palay that is priced for sale at $1, 650. Two Crispin V.
Lopez portraits are more realistically priced at $299 each.
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Add captionLeft: SAN MIGUEL ARCANGEL, A painting copied from Sanzio Raphael. Signed "Rafael Sanzio
por Dumlao". By Antonio Dumlao.1955. Right: ORACION EN EL HUERTO. By Domingo Celis. 1951.
He is one of the first graduates of the UP school of Fine Arts in 1914. |
American museums, like the Field Museum of History in
Chicago, keep many good examples of this kind of genre paintings. Since
1989, Geringer Art based in Honolulu,
Hawaii has also been studying and marketing fine Southeast Asian paintings,
including Filipino works wrought by artist who began their careers in Mabini,
In 1992, a book based on the art collection of Jorge B.
Vargas, the former Executive Secretary of Pres. Manuel L. Quezon, was written
by Prof. Santiago Pilar Albano on the occasion of the Vargas Centennial
Celebrations. The book, PAMANA, featured write-ups and photos of paintings of
many Mabini luminaries, raising further awareness for Vargas’ vintage paintings
which he bequeathed to the University of the Philippines, where they are now
housed at the school’s Filipiniana section.
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| WINNOWING RICE. By San Fernando-born Patricio Salvador of U/P. 1967. |
Suddenly, collectors and critics from here and abroad began
taking a more serious look at these artworks and the painters that created
them, finally acknowledging their significance and their place in the
development of Philippine art history.
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| BALIK-TANAW EXHIBIT in Chicago. Courtesy of Victor Velasco |
In June 2013, Filipino expatriate Victor B. Velasco
assembled Filipiniana paintings found in the U.S. in a representational exhibit
in Chicago entitled “Balik-Tanaw: Philippine Images Beyond Nostalgia” . The
exhibit featured the paintings of Mabini artists and others who worked in the
same style like Serafin Serna, C.V. Lopez, Hernando Ocampo, Crispin Agno and
Isidro Ancheta.
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| OLD SPANISH CHURCH. Elias Laxa of Macabebe,Pampanga. 1964. |
Art collector Mr. Jack Nasser, founder of Philexcel Business
Park and a pioneering investor in Clark
Field, Pampanga, began amassing Mabini
art paintings beginning in the 1960s. When he passed away, his widow, Ariella
Nasssr-Moskovitz, organized the Jack Nasser Collection and put the artworks on
permanent display at the Philexcel Art Center, inaugurated in 2016. The paintings on exhibit, many done
by Oscar Navarro and Paco Gorospe, is open to the viewing public.
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WEDDING GIFTS, by Simon Saulog, 1954. Commissioned by Heacock’s Department Store in Escolta.
Alex R. Castro Collection.
|
Perhaps, the most convincing proof that Mabini Art had indeed gained mainstream status as well as respectability in the art world is the inclusion of
paintings in the two premiere auction houses in the Philippines—Salcedo
Auctions and the Leon Gallery Auctions. Along with the like of Amorsolo, Bencab
and Manansala, examples of Mabini Art are now being offered on regular basis on
the prestigious auction houses—and doing very well.
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| MABINI STREET, 1976. |
For example Cesar Buevantura’s “Planting Rice” had an
ending price of Php 303,680 from a staring bid of Php 120,000. The “Barrio
Scene” painting of Romeo Enriquez sold at Php 163.520, more that quadruple its
initial Php 40,000 bid. Oscar Navarro’s “Sailboat”, which had a starting price
of Ph 16,000, was snapped up for Ph 46, 700. Simon Saulog’s “Nude”, was had a
tag price of Php 30,000, and which sold at Php 327,040. Finally, Antonio
Dumlao’s painting, “Bountiful” , with a
starting bid of Php400,000, ended with a realized price of Php 759,200.The
prices are still far away from the millions people pay shell out for a
Manansala or a Bencab, but selling is brisk and the demand remains strong.
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BAHAY KUBO BY THE BANKS, by Felix Gonzales,1955. Gonzales
owned a gallery at the Manila Hotel then moved to Mabini. Many of
his children became artists like him. |
The popular art form persists and endures today, although
slowed down by the vagaries of tourism industry and fads of taste. In some
nooks and crannies of Mabini and neighboring M.H. del Pilar, there are still a
handful of studios which continue to churn out canvas after canvas of nipa
huts, tinikling dancers, grazing carabaos and toiling farmers—objects of beauty
that have also become idealized expressions of our culture. In those
holes-in-wall may yet arise another Amorsolo, de la Rosa or Manansala, but what
is clear is that Mabini Art, once disparaged by local patrons, is finally
receiving the appreciation it deserves today.
SOURCES & REFERENCES:
Mabini’s Arty Street, Sunday Times Magazine, 6 January 1957, pp. 14-15, photos by Ben
Santos
Castañeda, Dominador C., Trends and Influences in Fine
Arts, PROGRESS 1955. Pp. 26-34
Quingco II, Oliver, Hartung III, Klaus W. Revisiting
Mabini Art, Transwing ® Jane Hartung, e.k., 2013
Albano, Santiago Pilar, Pamana: The Jorge B. Vargas Art
Collection, Committee on Arts and Culture, Vargas Centennial Celebrations, U.P.
Vargas Museum, 1992
Balik-Tanaw: Philippine Image Beyond Nostalgia, exhibit
catalog 2013
Castaneda, Dominador, Trends and Influences in Fine Arts,
Progress 1955. Pp. 27-33
ERMITA Magazine, 1976 issue
The Dynamics of Change in Tourist Arts
