A Short Tour of Metro Manila Exhibits

THE REPUBLIC Metro Manila 1-31 December 1976 5 BRIEFING □ Rosalinda G. Roxas A short tour of Metro Manila exhibits HE current festival of visual arts in 31, 1977. It consists of cultural treasures China’s cultural revolution. They result dolls, depicting the history, games, folk TMetropolitan Manila started last from the dawn of Egyptian civilization from surveys and preservation work car lore and folk dances of the Philippines September 27. Under the patronage of some 5,000 years ago to the products of ried out at many important sites and including the evolution of national cos the First Lady and Governor of Metro Islamic civilization. Sponsored by the ancient tombs. The artifacts present a tumes. The doll collection, first started politan Manila, Mrs. Imelda Romualdez Egyptian Antiquities Organization in bold outline of the development of his in 1953 as the Alto Doll Museum by Dr. Marcos, the festival’s start was held to Cairo, Egypt, the art treasures-100 tory and culture in ancient China. Aleli Guzman Quirino, was donated to coincide with the International Mone pieces covering 5,000 years, from pre There are magnificent stone and the Museum of Philippine Costumes. tary Fund-World Bank meetings. During historic 4,000 BC to the 18thcentuiy- bronze vessels and images dating from a most of last October, residents and were brought to the Philippines through thousand or fifteen hundred years before Bicentennial Exhibit visitors of Metro Manila were regaled the encouragement of the First Lady. Christ showing a highly developed cul with top-flight music, dance and drama. Mrs. Marcos was impressed by the col ture that was already existing at that HE newly-constructed Metropolitan International stars like the Bolshoi Bal lection during her yisit to Egypt last year. time. The Ming and Ching Dynasties por TMuseum of Manila located at the let, the Australian Ballet, Margot Fon The exhibit covers the Pharaonic or celain are considered superior to any Central Bank Complex opened October teyn, Montserrat Caballe, Ivan Rebroff traditional art which rose from the ritual other ceramics known around the world. 2 with the Bicentennial Exhibit of early and Van Cliburn were affectionately re and funerary needs as conditioned by Intricate flower designs and landscape American paintings and Western Euro ceived by the Manila audience. Not to the natural habitat of the people; the scenes characterize the porcelain of the pean paintings on lo.an from American be outdone, exhibition halls glowed Graeco-Rom an which is influenced by late Ming and Ching Dynasties. Paintings collections. The museum is vast and with art objects from Europe, the United Greece and Rome; the Coptic or Christ from the Sung Dynasty (900-1200 AD) stately, with imposing ceiling and spa States, China and Egypt. Visitors had a ian art; and the Islamic or Egyptian- are the richest in the art of painting. cious floors which can readily accommo good glimpse of Philippine traditions Islamic art. Chinese painting is essentially a linear date murals and large-scale sculptures. through such exhibits as the Kulay Anyo Among its major attractions are the art, composed of lines-horizontal, Consisting of about 100 paintings, a ng Lahi (public art paintings of estab canopic urns which were used to hold thrusting, winding, swirling, scaling. This few drawings and prints, and six sculpt lished artists in seven strategic spots of the ashes of the dead (one of them the is calligraphic art, a direct off-shoot of ures, the Bicentennial show follows the Metro Manila, a project of the People’s coffin of Prince Rameses), centuries-old the traditional Chinese art of character popular notion of art-that it must be Artists of the Philippines for the beauti icons, representations of the Pharaohs, writing. sensuously pleasing, charming as well as fication program of Metro Manila); Con life-like facsimile of Alexander the Great relaxing. temporary Art of the Philippines (at the and various antiques. One is intrigued by Philippine Costumes and Dolls In some ways, the art exhibits fill MuseongPansining ng Maynila); Likhang the prominence of several artistic motifs, up the cultural vacuum in the lifeways Bata (some 1,000 paintings by children the bird and the boat motifs, for in HE new Mercury Building at T.M. and thoughtways of the masses, giving three to twelve years old); Philippine stance. In Egypt, the boat is the vehicle TKalaw St in front of the Rizal Park them a taste of artistic standards. It Costumes and Dolls (exhibit of Philip of the sun-god as he sails across the houses an exhibit of Philippine dolls, would be quite a change from the super- pine dolls, tribal costumes, the evolution ocean-like sky. Furthermore,Egypt grew tribal costumes, the Filipina dress and star spectacles, the basketball craze and of the Filipina dress and barong Pilipino out of a civilization watered by the barong Pilipino, and Philippine embroid the trivialities of fashion, fads and festivi and Philippine embroidery); the Ilocano lower reaches of the Nile River. Travel ery. Inaugurated last October 1, it is a ties. It is to be assumed that by extend Museum and Philippine shells, butterflies and feasting were held on a boat and the permanent display. ing the products of artistic traditions and fishes at Nayong Pilipino; Philippine ancient kings had special royal barges The viewer grows acquainted with within the reach of'the Filipino people, Pre-History and Ethnology at the Na which popular imagination has closely the rich cultural heritage of the Philip the democratization of culture would tional Museum; the Philatelic collection associated with Cleopatra seated majes pines through the miniature world of inevitably be hastened. □ and the Animal Museum at the Sining tically on a magnificent barge leisurely Kayumanggi. moving on the Nile River. Examples of Many of these exhibits are still the bird motifs are the horus, falcon, ibis, open. They provide a rare opportunity geese, peewit, flamingo and vulture. For ~ the visual delights the Egyptian, the horus and the ibis sym of our culture—of the world. Below, The bolize occult powers. Republic presents a mini-tour of the With Ambassador J.V. Cruz as overall Manila exhibits. chairman, the Egyptian exhibit is ma naged by Dr. Muhammed Saleh, curator Portraits by Filipino Artists of the Egyptian museum in Cairo. Saleh had managed similar expositions in Eu IVE hundred paintings by Filipinos rope, the last one in 1973 at the Univer Fcoming from private collections as sity of Heidelberg. He is assisted by Mrs. well as contributions of the artists them Rosario B. Tantoco, curator of Museum selves are on exhibit at the Museum of Education at the National Museum. Contemporary Art (Museong Pansining According to Mrs. Tantoco, there ng Pilipinas). Formerly the Elks Club were 10,000 people during the first day Building, the two-story edifice has been of the exhibit She added that an average rebuilt to house the works of Filipino number of 5,000 people visit the exhibit painters with the hope of preparing them each day, the bulk of whom are paying for international grounds. It answers the visitors. long-standing need for a commodious Dr. Saleh when asked why the mu gallery for their art. seum is dark countered that this is to The five galleries of the museum create an atmosphere of mystery. are: a) Backgrounds and Departures, b) Ambiguous Figuration; c) Contem Among the 100 Egyptian artifacts, which are the most valuable? Saleh porary Representation; d) New Abstract mentioned four: the triad of the Myte- ion and e) Visual Propositions. The parti fonus, builder of the third pyramid cipating painters include: Hernando which is 4,600 years old; the family Ocampo, Tabuena, Ang Kiukok, Ray statue, which he said he particularly like; Albano, Arturo Luz, Federico Aguilar the statue of Tutankhamen and one of • Alcuaz, Benedicto Cabrera, Victorio the Graeco Roman pieces. One of (he Edades, Roberto Chabet, Lee Aguinaldo, Jose Joya, Cesar Legaspi, Anita Magsay- main attractions, he added, is the coffins or canopic jars which are^used say—Ho and Vicente Manansala. for the ashes. Ray Albano, director of the Mu seum, said that the place is most ideal He said everyone wanted to see a for showcasing the works of local artists. mummy. And why didn’t he bring one “It’s the first time we have a place like along? He explained that a mummy is that which really fits,” he explained. fragile, easily broken and affected by the weather. He observed that museum “White walls, high ceiling. It is intimate for a gallery, not at all cold or business goers sometimes do not believe that looking.” what they see are genuine. “Many think it’s an imitation,” he averred. How many people come to the gallery every day? “Around 2,000 to What are his plans after the exhibit 3,000 a week, paying or nonpaying,” he closes in March? “Maybe, we’ll send this answered. “There is a possibility that to Indonesia, Australia or China,” he answered. this will become a permanent site for our art shows.” Archeological Finds of China “The museum gives artists a new attitude,” he further said. “It makes him think bigger, literally, it makes him think LSO exhibited at the Old Legislative of scale. It makes him think sensitively ABuilding from October 1 through because of the beautiful space, the am December 31 from 9:00 A.M. to 10:00 bience of the gallery.” P.M. daily are artifacts representing 6,000 years of Chinese civilization, from Egyptian Art through the Ages the pottery of the Neolithic age to the porcelain of the Mongols in the 14th HE exhibition of Egyptian art at the century.

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