The convergence of the arts at León Gallery
Gallery openings can traditionally be such excruciatingly humdrum affairs — bland interiors, stark white walls, everyone looking severe in black as they take measured, tiny sips of bubbly and even tinier bites of “Menu A” hors d’oeuvres from the caterer of the moment who, alas, also served the same food at the boutique launch you attended the other day. The music, if there is any, is also so déjà vu that you begin to feel like a jaded, professional cocktail guest who has been attending too many parties.
With the art scene so reverberant, people are now spoiled for choice and galleries find it more challenging to keep their event on the top priority of their guests’ RSVP stack of invites. León Gallery seems to be meeting this challenge, however, as we witnessed in the bustling exhibit openings that they hosted the past year. It was refreshing to see how they put a lot of effort in creating the right atmosphere appropriate for the particular exhibit, from the design of the interiors to floral arrangements and culinary offerings.
To be sure, León is still traditional in many ways. It always maintains the highest standards in the authentication and documentation of its art pieces with the support of rigorous research and scholarship as well as impeccable provenance. It has also established a solid reputation for specializing in museum-quality and historically important Philippine art and meticulously chosen Philippine antiques, aside from being a premier auction house. But it wanted to give its clientele and Manila’s art enthusiasts a little more than business as usual by organizing unique, landmark exhibitions that capture the imagination and immerse the viewer in the world of the artist. The first in the series which opened in 2014 was “The Jim and Reed Pfeuffer Collection: A Four-Decade Friendship with Fernando Zóbel,” a highly successful show that looked into the mind and artistic process of the maestro, Fernando Zóbel, as seen through sketches, private correspondence and significant works amassed by his close friends, Jim and Reed Pfeuffer.
The second exhibit, “Alfonso Ossorio: Afflictions of Glory,” was another coup, featuring the largest collection of Ossorio works to be exhibited in the country. The most prominent, internationally known Fil-American artist to emerge mid-century, Ossorio was among the first from the school of abstract expressionism which started in New York and is said to have unseated Paris as the seat of modern art then. León Gallery founder Jaime Ponce De León wanted it to be even more special so when he consulted with the designated curators Tats Rejante Manahan and Lisa Guerrero Nakpil, they decided that the show should be more engaging and multi-disciplinary in approach. The featured artist in particular, had a very colorful life which already got them excited with so many ideas for mounting the show, from exhibition design to book design and even cocktails and food to be served.
Manahan had already been studying Ossorio since 2008 when she revisited his “Angry Christ” mural in the chapel of St. Joseph the Worker in Negros Occidental, writing an article on the church in 2009 and about the artist himself in a 2014 feature in Rogue magazine. As one of the few formally trained restorers in the country for wall paintings, she was also asked to head a team to restore the Ossorio mural.
Although Ossorio studied and lived in England and America most of his life, he was born in Manila in 1916 to affluent parents — his mother Maria Paz Yangco, descended from a wealthy Chinese-Filipino shipping clan and his father Don Miguel J. Ossorio was a Spanish sugar baron who founded the Victorias Milling company in Negros in 1919. After studying fine arts in Harvard and the Rhode Island School of Design, he became an abstract expressionist artist and eventually settled in East Hampton, a renowned artist colony and “playground for the rich” where he bought “The Creeks,” a 57-acre estate of several buildings and 40 rooms. He lived there with Ted Dragon, his companion for 42 years until his death in 1990. The Creeks was legendary for hosting the most lavish parties attended by fellow celebrity artists Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning and Mark Rothko and with entertainment from the likes of Enrico Caruso, Isadora Duncan and Ana Pavlova performing at the estate’s theater.
These parties and the rooms from the Italianate mansion at The Creeks provided a lot of inspiration for the interior design and decoration of the exhibit. Unbeknownst to most, De León was actually an interior designer before he opened the gallery in 2010 so he was so excited when Manahan suggested that they transform the gallery space into an Italianate Ossorio fantasy. Manahan, on the other hand, is also a surface decorator who studied in Venice and visits Italy regularly for further studies in wall painting and restoration.
For the Ossorio exhibit, she chose a palette of neutral gray with contrasts of jewel colors that complemented the artworks. Manahan also played with different textures: two walls were done in Venetian plaster, giving a stone-like sheen with subtle tones of gray that set off the works of wax-resist watercolor and ink that the artist is famous for. As counterpoint, she picked up from the vivid colors of “Study for Sanctuary Mural, St. Joseph’s Chapel,” finishing the third wall in matte turquoise and padding the fourth wall in a rough, orange linen weave.
To evoke the party salon of The Creeks, which was filled with Ossorio’s art collection as well as bizarre curiosities from his travels like skulls and primitive art, an eclectic mix of antiques, modern art pieces and furnishings was sourced from León’s store room. A long narra table with strange, hybrid sculptures dominated the center of the room with a chandelier hanging above it. Wooden santos were strategically placed on stands against the walls, a tribute to the artist’s devout Catholicism, his source of both consolation and anguish. As a homage to the sculpture garden where Ossorio spent a lot of his later years making congregations of conifers, asparagus ferns, kamuning leaves and palm berries were used to embellish the chandelier and table top which also had a grouping of Ming vases with sculptural floral arrangements inspired by the stupas of Borobudur. Persian carpets, which were piled en masse at the Ossorio mansion, were used for the gallery floor to make the space more relaxed and intimate. To complete the fantasy, chef Bambi Sy Gobio of Restaurante Pia y Damaso created a special menu for the cocktail opening, transporting us to the Hamptons with crab cakes, prawn rolls and poppy seed gougeres served with champagne, which, along with Chateau D’Yquem was the artist’s drink of choice.
ust when the Philippine art scene was taking a breather from the overwhelming Ossorio exhibit, León Gallery announced another exhibit for 2016: “Filipinos in the Gilded Age,” a collection of Philippine art from a period of exemplary accomplishments reflecting ideologies of the highest order, culminating in the revolution’s definition of nationhood and identity. Repatriated 19th century paintings on show included pieces by the masters led by Juan Luna and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo, exhibited in the Philippines for the first time. There were also exquisite religious sculptures in ivory and antique wooden furniture from prominent Filipino families. This was yet another milestone exhibit that was even bigger than the last one, requiring three curators which included Manahan, Nakpil, and this time with Ramon Villegas, renowned writer on Philippine art, material culture and social history. Villegas also lent his expertise as a fourth-generation jeweler, antiquarian and gallerist.
“The Gilded Age” came alive in the interiors inspired by Juan Luna’s Paris studio. For the paintings gallery, Manahan chose the 19th century French color palette of caca d’oie (which actually means goose poop), ranging from deep yellow ochre to a deep olive green and all the other tones in between. She was able to transcend its unsavory literal meaning by transforming the room into an elegant salon ideal for conversation and contemplating art. “I divided the walls in a 70-30 proportion, with the dark green shade above and the light yellow ochre below in a striae finish,” related the surface decorator. She explained how she uses a special wide brush to create the subtle lines. Dividing the upper and lower portions of the wall is a trompe l’oeil chair railing in faux lumachella marbre with light yellow inclusions and burnt and raw umber veins. To break the uniformity, one wall was covered in brocade wallpaper with a Turkish tulip pattern favored at that time.
The sculpture and furniture room, on the other hand, was finished in a reddish terra cotta, the perfect shade to showcase the ivory sculptures and kamagong furniture. For added panache, the door connecting the two rooms was ceremoniously flanked by tall, carved Baroque candlesticks and draped in fabrics that had a twisted effect just like in the photo of Luna’s atelier. “Flower arrangements in Chinese floor jars were styled in 19th century Dutch arrangements while mood music included Spanish and French “hits” of the time from composers like Manuel De Falla and Gabriel Fauré,” according to Manahan.
For the “Gilded Age” culinary offerings, Chef Bambi Sy Gobio also took her cue from the two Mediterranean countries favored by the ilustrados and made her own “subversive” version of duck rillettes, galantine, and paella rice cakes, among other scrumptious hors d’oeuvres.
With the renewed interest in Ossorio, León Gallery is once again mounting an exhibit of Ossorio works in “Grazing Light,” opening on April 21. With representative works from 1942 to 1989, from his early drawings of impeccable draughtsmanship to his lush congregations, this is another most awaited event in the cultural calendar. Where will the gallery take us this time?
“To Victorias in Negros,” says Manahan, who is the curator of the exhibit and is designing the interiors again. She showed us photos of the midcentury houses in white and green, typical of the tree-lined streets of the Negros enclave that she described as “pleasant, quaintly provincial, not the wild frontier variety or the idyllic pastoral, but rather the expansive laid-back sort of gentility with the aroma of old money.”
Now if that’s not enough to intrigue you about the exhibit, maybe Chef Bambi’s creative take on Negros cuisine will surely whet your appetite: Garlic chicken skin chicharon, batchoy soup cups, piaya wedges and barquillos, among other to-die-for delights.
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“Alfonso Ossorio: Grazing Light” will run at Leon Gallery, ground floor Corinthian Plaza, Paseo de Roxas cor Gamboa St. Salcedo Village, Makati from April 21 to May 12. Gallery hours are from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Curatorial guided tours by appointment only.
