Luis Ac-ac close and personal

The newly published coffee table book, The Life and Works of Luis Ac-ac of Paete, documents the staying power of what could be “the last living master sculptor of wood for both religious and secular art” in Paete, Laguna. But more than just about Mang Luis, the marvelously illustrated tome “strives to give the face, blood and life into the carving phenomenon called Paete” and “remembers, features and honors generation after generation of the great sculptors” of this town and her “glorious past.” (Copies of the book are available at Ayala Museum Bookshop, Solidaridad Bookstore, Museo and Atelier-Ac-ac and artbooks.ph.)

Paete was awarded the title “Carving Capital of the Philippines” by Presidential Proclamation No. 809 on May 16, 2005. Celestino Palma III, the book publisher, writes, “Paete, against economic odds and by pure artistic passion and religious faith, indulged deeper and performed better than Imperial Manila during the colonial and post-colonial 400-year history of Philippine sculpture.”

Paete sculptors were active since the beginning of the 19th century – and are in abundance today. Many of the town’s sculptors did not have formal art education. While the Manila sculptors were already carving non-religious or secular items for the noveau riche, Paete masters continued to use mainly wood and concentrated on religious subjects. Interestingly, during the American colonization of the first half of the 20th century, active Paete master carvers equaled if not exceeded the number of Manila-based sculptors. 

Palma surmises that the surge in number and passion of Paete sculptors is due to the absence of foreign business investors in the town, resulting in its people remaining relatively poor and dependent only on backyard mainly sculpture-led industries. Plus, the influence of tranquil Laguna Lake and the mysterious mountain forests surrounding the town enabled Paete to maintain “a unique, unfettered carving tradition.” 

Of great interest is the Church of St. James the Apostle in the town. John Casiple writes: “Art needs a place where it can be enjoyed and recognized even if the artist’s signature on it is absent or has been erased over time. In Paete, this place is the Church of St. James the Apostle, Santuwaryong Tanghalan, the hallow stage of the historical faith and artistry of the Paeteños embodied in their own carvings and paintings during the last 300 years.” Its retables (installed at the back of the altar table) contain the beautiful images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and saints executed by local artists in wood (baticuling, narra and mahogany).

And who is Luis Ac-ac, the phenomenal main subject of the book?

He was born on June 27, 1952, christened Luisito Balandra Ac-ac, the fourth of six children of Damaso Galaboc Ac-ac, a policeman and government employee, and Emeteria Kagahastian Balandra who ran a small food stall in the town. His grandfather Vicente Ac-ac was mayor of the town during the Japanese occupation. Refusing to collaborate with the invaders, he was kidnapped by Japanese soldiers, tortured and decapitated.

He studied at the Paete elementary school, where his drawings of Philippine heroes were exhibited on the bulletin board. He did the covers of the school paper Cavalier, at Santiago (St. James) High School. He did the finishing/surfacing work for Peter Bagalso, Fred Baldemor and Tirso Baldemor. 

 He enrolled at the College of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines for a bachelor’s degree in visual communication in advertising. To support his college education, he held several jobs – as an apprentice of Napoleon Abueva (now a National Artist), as a book illustrator at Bookman Printing and Kayumanggi Press and comic book artist for El Dorado Comics, Atlas Publication and Graphic Arts. 

His meager earnings not enough, with a heavy heart he quit schooling. But ten years later the university awarded him a Diploma as a graduate of the UP School of Fine Arts. He could hardly contain his tears.

Mang Luis married Marcela Cecilia David Agbagala in 1979; they have three children. To support the family, as an unknown artist he could not rely on the Paete tourist market. He went regularly to Manila to sell his works in the high-traffic area surrounding Quiapo church. There were days he could not sell a single piece. Like many unemployed Filipinos, he sought work abroad – as a fruit and ice carver in two foreign cruise ships, but to avoid fatal confrontation with jealous carvers, he decided to return to his beloved town. It was just as well. Hard work and passion for wood carving brought him the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award in Manila, an honor previously awarded to Paete’s artists Manuel and Fred Baldemor.

“It is easy to recognize the wood carvings of Mang Luis,” writes guest writer Saul Hofileña Jr. “His masterful strokes conjure an intimate dialogue of the sculptor with the material (wood) and implements. Each piece of sculpture, every panel and bas-relief carved by Mang Luis the virtuoso, depicts scenes of a pastoral, almost idyllic Paete ensconced in forests . . . (His) art works represent our culture and idealize our people: the musician tapping a drum, children playing forgotten native games like the palo sebo or firing a bamboo canon loaded with calburo, a barrio lad serenading with guitar and song, farmers ready to harvest, women selling luscious fruits, townsfolk merrily dancing the tinikling.”

Three art lovers helped boost his career: Celestino M. Palma III, Ambassador Jose Ma. A. Cariño and Tony Nazareno.

Palma, publisher of the sculptor’s book, is a former banker, founder and executive director of Phil-Asia Heritage and Art Management Inc., a private entity that advocates for the preservation of Philippine art heritage through research, training and restoration.

Ambassador Cariño, the book editor, is a career diplomat with postings in Madrid and London. His books Jose Honorato Lozano and Album: Islas Filipinas won the National Book Award and the Alfonso Ongpin Art History Research Award, and Discovering Philippine Art in Spain garnered an Anvil Award.

Palma and Cariño took Mang Luis to Spain to view master painters’ and sculptors’ works in 2014.

Palma and Cariño and collaborators and sponsors put up a Museu and Atelier Ac-ac at the entrance of the town which features some of Mang Luis’ best works. A taller workshop for his apprentices and for creating his future works stands at the back of the museum.

In 1988, well-known collector Tony Nazareno visited the carver’s small shop in Paete, where the artist, in shorts and sando, was working on a piece. Tony fell in love with the works Malakas at Maganda and Cain at Abel, and bought the pieces right there and then. Not only that, he asked the sculptor to make him 45 pieces which formed the Ang Akit ng Ukit ni Ac-ac exhibit at Vizcarra Galleries. Nearly all the pieces were sold. A series of exhibits began.

The celebrated but humble and soft-spoken Mang Luis organized 20 young Paeteños known as the Paete Artists Group. He led the group in exhibits to promote Paete sculpture in Manila and Makati, and at the Philippine Heritage Center in Los Angeles, and the Philippine Folklore and Folklife of the Philippine Center in San Francisco, which has a permanent exhibit of Mang Luis’ 15-piece bas relief of Philippine history.

Asked by Palma about his plans for the future, Mang Luis said: “More teaching. That is my way of giving back for the talent and many blessings I have received. I want to spend more time teaching the youth of Paete how to carve. My dream is to establish a school for sculpture in Paete. If God wills it, I would teach until I am 80.”

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