New books on Amorsolo
Two new books on National Artist Fernando C. Amorsolo’s art will be launched tomorrow evening at an appreciation dinner for collectors at Crowne Plaza Hotel. Hosting the affair on the Grand Old Man of Philiipine Art’s 125th birth anniversary is the Fernando C. Amorsolo Art Foundation Inc., publishers of the boxed two-volume set titled Amorsolo: Love & Passion.
The first of four previous Amorsolo books was Amorsolo, 1892-1972 by Alfredo Roces, published by Filipinas Foundation, Inc. in 1975. This was followed by Lupang Hinirang: Alay ni Amorsolo by Ambeth R. Ocampo and Carmen Aquino Sarmiento, published by Metropolitan Museum of Manila in 1989; and Fernando C. Amorsolo: Drawings by Rodolfo Paras-Perez, published by Lopez Museum in 1992. In 2009, the Amorsolo Art Foundation led by the artist’s heirs published Maestro Fernando C. Amorsolo: Recollections of the Amorsolo Family.
The new mini-coffeetable books are sized at 9 1/2 inches by 12 3/4 inches. Volume 1: Portraits has 188 pages and 309 paintings and photos, while Volume II: Landscapes & Other Works, has 240 pages and 193 images.
Sylvia Amorsolo Lazo writes nearly all of the text in Volume 1: Portraits, mostly stories relating to each featured artwork, while also sharing reminiscences from the portrait subjects and/or their heirs.
“Here they narrate their experiences with Papa while posing for him. They reminisce on those memorable moments that they regard as blessings for having known him in person. …As for those portraits of well-known figures who had passed away, these have been handed down to their children and grandchildren, all of whom continue to express their deepest gratitude for receiving these art treasures to remember their loved ones by.”
Among the prominent portrait subjects were then Senate President Manuel L. Quezon and Aurora Quezon, General Douglas MacArthur and numerous American military officers, then Secretary of Commerce Rafael Alunan, Enrique Zobel de Ayala, Trinidad de Ayala y Zobel, Carmen Ayala de Roxas, Mariano Roxas, Margarita Roxas de Ayala, Jacobo Zobel, Pedro P. Roxas, Mr. and Mrs. Fernando Zobel, Marguerite Roxas de Soriano, Susan Magalona Elizalde and her children, Central Bank Governor Gregorio S. Licaros, Virginia Luna Bourbon (“in a beautiful dress created by Pitoy Moreno”), Julio and Francisca Gregorio (“the patriarch and matriarch who founded the well-known Greg Shoes Store”), the sisters Victoria and Gretchen Oppen, Emma Litton Laperal and her parents and children, and Gliceria Rustia Tantoco.
Among the last obras maestras the artist made prior to his demise was a portrait of the young movie star Susan Roces, as commissioned by Fernando Poe Jr. “for inclusion in the movie Langit at Lupa where Susan was the lead actress,” and given to her before their wedding.
This writer, the books’ text editor, adds an afterword to Volume I, “The Maestro’s Full Range of Genius.” It also serves as a bridge to Volume II, which begins with an essay from the point of view of a millennial.
In “Amorsolo’s Enduring Figurations, Poetics of Happiness,” Carlomar Arcangel Daoana writes:
“It’s not always frequently mentioned, but there is always something in Amorsolo’s work that makes people happy. Happiness, certainly, is not a rubric to which we subject our evaluation of art, but this is what we gain when we look at his works: a real delight on the transformative power of the master’s brush, on the symphonic unity of the painting elements, on the illusion of sunlight infusing a benevolent world, on the good-natured people conducting their activities in glee, on the wheels of the universe running smoothly. We recognize that the world in an Amorsolo is not our world (as it was not, even to those who were contemporary of the master’s), and it is in this recognition that an assurance is forged and made possible: that even in a foreboding, dark time, Amorsolo’s light will remain available and inextinguishable.”
In her extensive and well-detailed commentary, “Infinite Variety: Themes and Variations,” Jane Allinson compares variations of Amorsolo’s works, principally his rice-planting and lavanderas series. She concludes: “Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto put his soul on canvas. Each composition was a creative celebration — not a repetition — of the way he saw the world. An accurate assessment of the artist’s oeuvre confirms his statement: ‘My paintings are all original.’”
Our foremost art critic Cid Reyes contributes two essays, “A Legacy of Landscapes” and “La Filipina Desnuda.” Of the artist’s landscapes, Cid writes:
“Not only do they prove that Amorsolo knew the scenery as intimately as a visual artist could — the place is never a figment of the imagination, but evidence of visitation — for Amorsolo ventured out into the countryside, often with fellow artists, giving him untrammeled access into the real, visible world, and like Monet, could point to these places — Antipolo, Marikina, Marilao, Montalban, Tagaytay, Bicol — and claim, ‘That is my studio!’
“Too, the figures that peopled his landscape canvases were representative individuals of Amorsolo’s time and place, whose feelings the artist had internalized and for whom he had faith that even when painted at a far distance as a mere fleck of color, a peasant or maiden would register across as a living being in touch with the land.”
And of the artist’s nudes: “Steeped in the classical conservative tradition of painting where Life Class was a requisite, Amorsolo mastered the human anatomy, as evidenced by his numerous extant drawings of the nude. His prodigiousness amplified his natural gift for the limning of the female form in all its proportions, undulations, and sensuousness.”
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For book copies, interested parties may contact Nandy Lazo at nandylazo@yahoo.com or 09064973193, or Sylvia Amorsolo Lazo at 0919-4617952 or 749-5271.
