But is it art?

Spoliarium by Juan Luna

We (party of three, please: Tita Didit, my wife, and myself) arrived long after the Botong Franciscos, the Amorsolos, and the Magsaysay-Hos had been consigned to their new owners; we were just in time for the last of the lot to meet their fates at the bang of the master’s gavel. A Sotheby’s auction can reveal much of the nature of wealth; the rich in the most casual of clothes, or unseen from another end of a telephone line; or the dearth of taste evident in those who’ve been deputized to act on their master’s whims. (“Did you see that woman in front of us?” my lovely wife mutters, her voice dripping with scorn. “She was wearing chandelier earrings with her business suit! What was she thinking?”)

Wonderfully eye-opening, yesterday was: I’ve a long way to go before I can look at a canvas and expound on it like I know anything, so now I have to settle for “Art, shmart, I know it when I like it.” Case in point: a Mantovani that banged the gavel for about S$10,000, and looked like a big snapshot of a schoolboy’s paper pad: nothing but a white background, and equidistant parallel fine blue lines drawn across. “Is that art?” I thought to myself. “Jesus H. Christ, I can do the same thing!” Shouldn’t art have that “Kids, don’t try this at home” feel? Isn’t the appeal of art that of knowing no ordinary schoolboy can execute it in a bored middle-of-math-class moment?

Eye opener number two: we visited a preview of the Asian Art Week exhibit slated for April; we met Marjorie Chu, a gallery curator and a chronicler of the Asian art scene. She expounded at length on her favorite Filipino artists (Arturo Luz, she says, is her mentor), and concluded thus—Filipino art doesn’t need to go overseas to win renown; the Philippine art scene is incredibly active, drawing attention from all corners of the world. The art scene in the Philippines is fifteen years ahead of the rest of Asia, she says.

Tita Didit says Ms. Chu’s estimate is about a hundred years off. Long before Amorsolo and Francisco, Luna and Hidalgo were there. Old Manila had artists, artisans, and patrons long before art was considered worthy of attention in Beijing and Singapore. Shame that today, the Manila government has Botongs stuck up in crevices somewhere, with nowhere to put them. We’re known for our art abroad, not at home where it should be closest to our hearts. Which could best be represented by a word that’s known in Malaysia, Singapore, and yes, the Philippines: “Sayang.”