OFWs rural life in paintings by Cesar Buenaventura

No one knows the exact scope or magnificence of the large body of work left behind by Filipino oil painter Cesar Buenaventura, perhaps not even himself, if he were still alive. Works were bought wet from the easel or whisked overseas. Jane Stangl Alvero in her book entitled Filipino Painter, Cesar Buenaventura: His Life and Works assembled together into a single portfolio his diverse, extensive and masterful collection. This is the first time that his works are brought to the public eye after his demise. The Peso Book Foundation co-sponsored this book with OB Montessori Center, Inc., which is also launching The Pagsasarili Mothercraft Literacy Book for Local and Overseas Filipino Working Women together with Cesar Buenaventura’s book on Friday, Aug. 16 at the Maria Montessori Hall and Art Museum located at the OB Montessori Greenhills headquarters on Eisenhower Street.

Cesar Buenaventura’s greatest achievement is that his paintings were known as unofficial "Ambassadors of Goodwill" for the country in the visual arts. Hundreds of living rooms abroad display his works. In the ’50s and ’60s, Peace Corps volunteers, American Embassy employees, US servicemen and their wives, as well as tourists and several Hollywood actors picked out a Cesar Buenaventura nine times out of 10, including Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and George Montgomery. They enjoy his paintings of glorious sunsets, grand fleshed-out cloud formations and three-colored skies. The most popular being a sallow monochrome that is hard to duplicate. His paintings had a mood, certain quietness that a Buenaventura collector can spot from a distance.

Cesar, The Bulakeño Protege Of Amorsolo

Cesar Buenaventura was born on January 14, 1922. His parents, Teodoro Pascual Buenaventura and Agripina Espinosa, were from Paombong, Bulacan.

Unlike his father, who was a distinguished UP professor or his brother Teddy Junior who had taken formal studies in art at UP before the war, Cesar did not study art in school. This was because his father opposed to the idea of having two sons competing in the same field. It was only at the old man‘s retirement when Cesar finally received formal instruction from his father. As it turned out, Cesar surpassed the skill and fame of both father and brother.

Eventually, Cesar became a protégé of Fernando Amorsolo who had complete confidence in his talent. So, when he had large or important commissions, he would invite the latter to help him as an Amorsolo manchador, an apprentice who "stains" the silhouette of the master painter. Amorsolo was a classicist whose general "backlighting" was in fact a type of European light. Like Amorsolo, Cesar could create illusions of detail by the use of color. A single shade was made up of a great number of intermediate shades mixed by instinct.

It Was An Honor To Be A Mabini Artist

Jane Stangl stated in the book, "Let us not forget that beyond Mabini’s ‘mass production’ there was much good and original work coming out of there... Mabini collectors preferred to buy Mabini art because they could relate to it... Mabini was of course classified in general terms as traditional art."

It was an honor to be on Mabini. The studios of early graduates of the premier art schools in the country such as the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo Tomas were located here. The ones with credentials were: Gabriel Custodio, Simeon Saulog, Ben Alano, Oscar Navarro, Antonio Dumlao, Edward Perrenoud and Felix Zablan. Those who had formal art schooling among the younger second generation artists were Serafin Serna, Elias Laxa, Romeo Enriquez, Roger San Miguel, Leonardo Zablan and Teodoro Junior, Cesar Buenaventura’s elder brother. The works of all of these respectable painters are in the collections of 800 paintings of Atty. Jovenal and Punay Fernandez.

"Like a demarcation line that assured who ate and who starved, making it on Mabini at the time was the gauge, the yardstick for success," Stangl concluded.

No one has ever recorded the history of this tainted "sister" in its entirety. But the life of its brightest star, Cesar Buenaventura, will explain much about it.

The Crowing Glory Of Mabini

Cesar surpassed the skill and fame of both father and brother. Situating himself on Mabini, his paintings became the crowning glory of the place, bringing to it excitement and vigor.

The colony of artists on Mabini started with the old giants known for their classical mastery. Cesar was younger than these men, but he stole the thunder from them, so to speak. In the late ’50s, and all of the ’60s and ’70s, his works – alone in their own bracket – commanded the best prices and the surest sales.

After his death, Mabini fell into seediness and has never been quite the same again. He represented all that it was, good and bad, noble and ignoble. At his death, the art world on Mabini almost ground to a halt.

This is Cesar Buenaventura’s greatest contribution to Philippine art – helping pave the way for a future generation of modernists.

Lyd Arguilla and the progressive, avant-garde P.A.G. artists had a hard time, in the beginning to get collectors to buy their modernist works.

The reason Cesar managed to do it gradually and more successfully was because Cesar had a gift for versatility. At a moment’s notice, he could swing like a pendulum from realism to expression or to full abstraction with equal knack.

Cesar’s Fans Are Legion

It may be said the world saw the Philippines through his eyes. How many outstanding Amorsolo or Fabian dela Rosa paintings are out there showing off the pristine beauty of these 7,000 islands to the rest of the world? Perhaps a few. But from the paintbrush of Cesar Buenaventura, there are legion.

On the international scene, Cesar Buenaventura was the most well-known landscape painter of the country from after the war until his death in 1983.

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With Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople as speaker, civic leaders and diplomats will witness the launching of the books Cesar Buenaventura: His Life and Works and The Pagsasarili Mothercraft Literacy Course for Local and Overseas Filipino Working Women which will take place on Aug. 16, 5:30 p.m., at the Maria Montessori Theater auditorium at the eighth floor of the Greenhills headquarters. It has been converted into an art museum showing a hundred Cesar Buenaventura paintings. It will feature a musical stage show of how rural mothers can improve their personal grooming, housekeeping, childcare and food preparation, called Ang Galing ng Pinoy.