Bunye: BSP’s painting collection

Saturday, November 19, 2011

EARLIER this year, I wrote about the BSP’s Painting Collection, which art curators in the country have described as “formidable”.

Ramon E.S. Lerma, Curator of the Ateneo Art Gallery, said that in terms of size and historical breadth, the BSP Painting Collection rivals that of any museum of national standing.

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Most Filipinos may wonder why a government institution such as the BSP even collects such magnificent and rare paintings, including those by Fernando Amorsolo and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo.

Lerma, who edited the 2005 BSP coffee table book Tanaw: Perspectives on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Painting Collection, gave a comprehensive explanation on the BSP’s painting acquisition program.

“Indeed, there can be no better way to explain the existence of this collection, and to justify the substantial public resources involved in procuring these paintings, than to look at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as an institution whose role as repository and custodian goes beyond solipsistic definitions of a country’s material wealth,” Lerma pointed out.

He further explained: “For the BSP, preserving the Philippines’ cultural patrimony is just as important as tending to its financial well being – an impetus that articulates the high value the organization holds and the lofty ideals that it has about the nation it serves.”

In addition to sending select pieces to its other branches in key cities all over the country, Lerma said that the BSP has exhibited some of the art works at the Money Museum located within its premises and the nearby Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

The BSP also regularly lends its paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and to other museums and galleries for temporary exhibition, as part of its continuing efforts to allow Philippine society to partake of its rich heritage, Lerma added.

Most importantly, Lerma stressed, the BSP published a set of coffee table books from 1981 to 1983 -- the Kayamanan series -- which shared knowledge about the BSP’s art collections and enhanced their significance by highlighting these objects as “treasures of the Filipino people.”

Started during the term of former Central Bank Governor Jaime Laya, the collection is now conservatively valued at P2 Billion pesos, almost two thousand times the acquisition price.

During his term, Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. has purchased an additional 25 art pieces, including three Tanaw art competition winners. Tanaw: the BSP Art Competition, is a biennial contest open to all Filipino citizens that encourages the production of excellent art works and aims to help the BSP expand its collection.

Just last week, the Monetary Board approved of the acquisition of a Macario Vitalis painting, The Magician.

In The Magician (1958), valued at P1.5 million, Vitalis froze the sleight-of-hand trick of birds flying through the air with his juxtaposition of colors and geometric planes.

The renowned Filipino painter was born in Ilocos Sur in 1898 and devoted his life to painting at a young age. He left the country in 1917 in the hope of finding greener pastures in the United States, and enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts upon arriving there.

Vitalis left the United States in 1925 when Paris, the art center of the world, beckoned. He returned to the Philippines in 1963 after seeing the Bayanihan Dance Company perform in Paris, but went back to Europe the same year for an exhibit.

In 1986, Vitalis held a retrospective exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. After the event, he stayed in Iligan City where he died three years later.

Having spent most of his life and career in Europe, Vitalis’ paintings can be found there. About 40 of his works, purchased by a Lebanese in 1962, are now in the possession of a museum in Beirut, Lebanon.

Indeed, the BSP’s Painting Collection allows us Filipinos the rare opportunity to learn about the lives of our world-renowned artists and take pride in their works.

Note: You may email us at totingbunye2000@gmail.com. Past articles may be viewed at http://speakingout.ph/speakingout.php.