ONE FINE DAY INDEED

By Jonathan Shih

In the 90s, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a newspaper in the Philippines, has a column that comes out every Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, if I‘m not mistaken. It’s called Young Blood, wherein anybody who is in the 20 something and younger age bracket can submit a article, short essay or short story. Whichever is a person’s fancy and honestly, before, I read it regularly, when we had the daily at our doorstep every day. 

As time passed, my mom had it stopped, maybe for financial reasons. So, we only buy the paper every Saturday or Sunday. In those days that I was regularly reading the column, there was an article that I will always remember. You might be thinking, maybe it’s because the article was good, or it made me cry, or it inspired me, or it made an impact on my life since then or just plain great, but that was not the case. I couldn’t forget it because it chronicled another case of the Filipino’s misconceptions and interpretations concerning Art, Art History and Artists (with all due respect to my countrymen). 

The article, which was entitled One Fine Day, was written by a certain ’artist’, who works in a Animation Studio located in Makati CIty. I figured he’s working as a In-betweener, or a ‘background artist’ (these are Animation terms). In the article, he tells of his excursion one weekend to the National Museum in Manila. I remember vaguely that he confessed that it was his first time to visit the museum.

He also confessed that it was worth the visit going to the museum. You may ask me why what was it worth it? Well, he wrote that it was worth the visit for the reason that, in his own words, he was able to see and be in front of, “one of the world’s greatest masterpieces”. The painting that he was referring to was the so called Spolarium by Juan Luna, a contemporary of the Philippines’ National Hero, Jose Rizal. The painting depicts a chamber or prison cell where prisoners are being tortured and dragged across the floor with spectators in the background.

I confess that I don’t know the exact representation of the painting because frankly, I don’t look at Filipino ’artists’ paintings or any other ’artwork’ (with all due respect again to my countrymen).  The mentioned painting is displayed in the main entrance hall of the museum (this information was only told to me by a colleague, for I confess, I’ve never visited the museum).  So, anyone entering the museum would see the painting first hand. And he also told of his being awe struck by the painting because of its huge size (by my calculations, the painting would be at least 10x20 feet in dimension). The frames used as according to my trustee colleague are like huge logs of wood made into frames. And instead of ropes to hang the painting, the museum used huge chains. 

Let’s again repeat the writer’s statement about the painting, he said, it was, according to him, “one of the world’s greatest masterpieces”. 

Quite a intelligent statement, if it were true that it’s indeed “one of the world’s greatest masterpieces”. How can I say that? You might ask. Isn’t Juan Luna one of the pillars of  Philippine ‘Art’? One of the Master ‘Artists’’ of the Philippines? He even won a prize for painting for the Spolarium, according to my colleague. So in conjunction, his paintings should be considered one of the greatest in the world? Well, I wish it were true, but unfortunately it’s not. My reason? If it’s indeed “one of the world’s greatest masterpieces”. Why isn’t it in any of the Art History books that you can easily and conveniently buy in a bookstore? 

Even the ‘artist’ who painted it is not in the Art History books. You may ask again, how am I certain that it’s not in the Art History books? Well, since the early 90’s, when I was still studying Fine Arts. I started collecting Art books. Every spare change I have, it goes into the purchase of an Art book. When I go out of the house, I would go directly to National Bookstore or Goodwill Bookstore to search for a book. I would always delight at the sight of the numerous Art books in display. There I would select a book that I would eventually purchase. I would select it for the price, which should be reasonable and not so expensive. I would also select a book for its content. The top criterion would be the Artist named after the book. 

You name it, I have it, (well almost). Books about the Renaissance and the Old Masters, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens, Delacroix, Bruegel, Bosch. Impressionism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Pop Art, Modern Art, The Modern Masters. Not to mention Art Instructional books on Old Master techniques, painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography, art & crafts, anatomy, Art history and Dictionaries of Art and Artists. Now, what am I getting at? I’ve scanned and viewed each and every one of my Art books, although not actually reading every single page of each one but I’m certain the Spolarium is not in any of the books. Indeed, it’s not in the Art Books of another colleague of mine, wherein he has more books than me. I envied him on one particular book, titled The Story of Art, a huge book, maybe almost two thousand pages and quite heavy. There contains the history of Art since the dawn of man to the present age. 

He told me, he didn’t find Juan Luna’s name or his painting, the Spolarium, in his book or any single Filipino ‘artist’ who ever lived. So, what does this humble piece of information mean? That the Spolarium  is not “one of the world’s greatest masterpieces”, according to our dear excursionist in the museum. I’m sorry but I have to disagree with his statement, which was born out of ignorance of the truth. Anyone who read that article would have been misinformed to the real facts concerning Art and Art History. As the English adage again states, ’Little knowledge is dangerous.’  The sad fact is, we are living in reality here. 

To the dear excursionist in the museum,  the sad reality is that his presumption that in his heart and mind, that the Spolarium is “one of the world’s greatest masterpieces”, is nothing but ignorance to the facts about Art and Art History on his part. Another sad reality is, that anyone who read that article of his would be swallowed up with him in ignorance unless someone speaks the truth. Can we accept to ourselves to live in ignorance for the rest of our lives? Are we to just believe and agree to every word and sentence that is fed to us in everything that we read and listen to?