MikeLigalig.com

By Joe Espiritu
Columnist
Bohol Sunday Post

A raging controversy is going on between the so-called artists of Angono and the authorities of the National Press Club. The fellows must have renovated the NPC that they were able to commission the so-called artist or artists, to paint a mural on their wall. When the picture was finished, the newsmen - we will call them that because the denizens of NPC are dominated by the print media - did not like what they saw. Some were of the opinion that the mural was controversial to the point of being reactionary that they decided to modify some parts by superimposing pictures over them.

This earned the ire of the artists. They accused the supposedly uncultured news personnel of defacing their obra maestra. The philistines had committed a sacrilege, they destroyed their work. The artists cannot ask the news people to return their work simply because it was painted on the wall. The problem there is; if the artists would not want their masterpiece defaced, neither would they redo their work because that is their expression of art. Even if the picture may be returned, they cannot refund the money. As for the NPC, they could had been better off if they had commissioned the firm of our own Napoleon V. Abueva to paint the mural.

They even went on air to express their anger. What artist would like their masterpiece to be mutilated? Who are those pen pushers to tamper with a work of art? In the print media, which make up the NPC, there are many kinds. There are the cultured and the pedestrians, the Brahmins and the bums. Most are erudite, articulate and iconoclastic. Practically all of them are cynical as newsmen go.

There was a time when the NPC bigwigs were mostly Philets or Artlets of the University of Sto. Tomas. We had our share of bums then, but there are those who know and could appreciate the works of the Old Italian masters like Michelangelo, Raphael and Botticeli, French painters like Degas, Cézanne and Van Gogh or even the cubist Picasso or the surrealist Dali. That means, art appreciation is not the monopoly of the artist.

There are also as many kinds of the so-called artist, we are talking this time of those who paint because the controversy is about painting. There are the creative painters, the daubers and the illustrators who claim to be artists. Art is roughly defined as a creation of a beautiful or thought provoking work. Whether the mural is thought provoking or beautiful, we do not know yet. We have not yet seen the mural; we are not in the position to judge. However, we would rely upon the taste of the present NPC authorities.

A work of art is a creation of the artist and not all works of an artist is art. It might mirror his expression. It is only through general acceptance that a work maybe considered art. There had been painters, who became famous only after they had died penniless. When an artist is considered a master, any of his original work must not be altered. No self respecting art collector or museum curator would do that. However, the NPC case is different.

The NPC commissioned the Angono artists to paint the mural. Why Angono? It is because the National Artist, a muralist Botong Francisco lived and died there.

Perhaps some of his abilities might have rubbed off on the local artists. All of them could distinguish between a paintbrush and a toothbrush but not all of them acknowledge the operational word commission. They are expected to do what the NPC want not what the artists want.

It could not happen that the NPC just commissioned the painters to create a mural without specifying what the mural would express. Murals carry a message or illustrate the history of the NPC or whatever, expressed in a beautiful way. The NPC wants their message, feelings, hopes and aspirations conveyed, not the artists That means the though must be from the National Press Club. They paid for it. Once they had it, they could alter some scenes or pictures to conform to their tastes. They had paid for it.

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