|
 The
title of this article is easily controversial but I have a point
to make and perhaps also a story to tell. No, the title does not
refer to something like an ambitious traveling show project
involving milestone works by important masters, the type
sponsored by big companies and put together to provide the host
countries an introduction to the art scene or art history of the
organizers’ country, in this case, as mentioned above,
American.
Instead, I am referring to the thesis exhibition of two American
art students who are pursuing their degree of Master of Fine
Arts at the College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines.
The two young men are Sean Timothy Malone and John Matthew Bush
Gatton and their exhibition, entitled Making Faces, is on
display at the Jorge B. Vargas Museum, University of the
Philippines campus until Dec. 15 this year.
Writing this article itself could also expose me to the charge
of colonial mentality or a partiality for things or activities
foreign, perhaps, by those who may give a care to pick on it.
But now I am even going farther all the way to the edge to say
that, for me, it is indeed an honor to the Graduate Program of
the College of Fine Arts, U.P., where I teach art history
subjects, to have foreign students like Malone and Gatton (we
also have a Nigerian, Koreans, etc.,) who have looked up our
school and chosen to enroll here.
In the case of Malone and Gatton, they came to the Philippines
for their own human reasons and their being in the College is
not necessarily due to the College’s standing which they heard
about abroad before deciding to enroll. As a matter of fact, the
two joined the Graduate Program at a time of transition in which
the college was seeking and implementing changes in the
program’s policies, curriculum as well as faculty. Thus,
Malone and Gatton underwent experiences during their enrollment,
advising and learning that may have given them quite a shock,
after coming from schools where the procedures in every aspect
of learning have already been polished to perfection for the
benefit of everyone.
Making Faces is exactly about that: making faces. On the
surface, Malone is working on appearances while Gatton is
focused on expressions and situations. Therefore, the theses of
the two have felicituously blended into one harmonious show. For
Malone, portraiture is the act of seeking the spiritual
dimension of painting. He is looking for "the soul in a
portrait," he says in his thesis proposal. To understand
his works therefore is not just to appreciate the fine quality
of his often Renaissance-like glazing technique, one has to
single out the "clues" (postures and devices) which he
precisely chose in order to capture the spiritual energy he
sought to bring about.
According to Malone also, for a portrait to have
"soul," its universal appeal or meaning should prevail
over the actual earthly or human subject portrayed. Even the
everyday objects surrounding the sitter should transcend their
diurnal significance and become symbols. About two years ago,
Malone became fascinated with a ca. 1930’s photograph of the
late President Manuel Roxas and his family and since then, had
embarked on reproducing this into a more than lifesize canvas,
approximately 90" x 60."
 In this work,
resemblance is captured, but just like art based on photograph,
its human vitality is checked. This, Malone achieved by hewing
to the tonal values in old photographs or chromolithographs
where light and dark are sharply contrasted, quite different
from the dynamically changing light of the actual world. Any
suggestion of earthly lifelikeness would defeat Malone’s
vision of spiritual energy in portraiture.
Certainly his most appealing work is "Mother and
Child," a 60" x 48" oil on panel depicting a
strongly frontal portrait of a Filipina in a printed dress and
holding up a baby. The mother figure almost entirely fills up
the whole canvas to suggest the narrowness of her modest home
which is cramped further by the furniture, utensils and kitchen
goods around her. Central to the picture is her smile, symbol of
maternal bliss, and all the varied shapes and modulated colors
around her contribute to the universal theme of fulfilled
motherhood. Again Malone uses a sharply contrasted tonality.
Realistic colors and lighting would simply make the act of
painting a slave to imitation thus depriving it of its own
spiritual purpose.
Malone painted his own private muse in "Ang Mindoreña
sa Bahay Ng Tiya Niya." "She is the reason why I
came to the Philippines," he likes to intimate. In this
work, Malone falls into the temptation of portraying the Mindoreña’s
coy smile vividly but he takes back this realistic breach by
painting an almost eerie dark background that includes the flat
mirror reflection of the girl’s hair and a contrastingly
bright open air view on far right, perhaps symbolizing hope.
After his Bachelor of Fine Arts in the United States where he
was born, Malone spent three years teaching English in Korea
where he met the Mindoreña.
John Matthew Gatton or "Matt" is a professor of
photography at the University of La Salle. A Bachelor of Arts
cum laude from Allen R. Hite Institute, University of
Louisville, U.S.A., Matt is married to a Filipina physician and
they have a daughter. Matt’s theses is concerned with
photosculpture. Accordingly, he has created six
three-dimensional busts of "Lolo." Lolo
is the late Atty. Francisco Carreon, his wife’s grandfather.
The busts are made of cast thermosetting plastic with
incorporated light blockers and water-clear layers of
specialized ultraviolet resistant materials. Made of transparent
resin, the busts glow with custom-made internal illumination. To
help evoke realistic appearance as well as different emotional
situations, Gatton applied colors, digital prints and litho
films on the busts’ surface. With this work, Matt hopes to
investigate the physical and aesthetic possibilities of his
materials as alternative to traditional sculptural media.
Along with the glowing sculptures, Gatton shows 17 paintings in
the two-man exhibit. Here Gatton employs neoexpressionistic
devices like bold strokes of bright colors and planar distortion
to paint faces or figures that symptomize today’s anxieties
and problems. "Dalaga" shows the close-up image
of a woman with an alluring stare. Gatton annotated this
painting as "about making eye contact in a crowd with a
beautiful stranger – a split-second romance. There is a moment
of connection, of mutual appreciation, and that is all."
Flirty Gatton!
"Makati Warrior," on the other hand, is a stiltedly
cropped split-second photo-like depiction of a Blas Ople-looking
corporate man. Gatton annotated this work, thus: "he goes
into battle sporting his Centennial tie and a renewed sense of
nationalism."
Making Faces, for me, is mainly about portraits of Filipinos
from the eyes of two foreign students who have lived here long
enough to have studied and been perplexed if not fascinated with
the Filipino way of life. But it is also about the vision and
skills of two American professional artists whose works deserve
to be counted among the finest that their country has produced.
The exhibit can be viewed on-line at allwebs.8k.com/makingfaces.
|
