My BenCab Paper

The Local as International: The National Artist in BenCab

      Celebrated artist Benedicto Cabrera, BenCab as he likes to sign his works, has gone a long way from the boy who paints on the pavement and walls at age 7 to becoming hailed as a master of Philippine contemporary art. This tag, not to mention being proclaimed a national artist for painting in 2006, is one of the reasons why his paintings today sell even before they are finished:

 

‘He acknowledges that his wife keeps a list of collectors who are queuing up to buy work that has yet to be produced. "It's a nice problem. I just ask my wife who's next in line," he said, laughing.

(http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/13/news/web.bencab.php?page=1)’

 

             This paper aims to historicize the place of BenCab in Philippine painting and understand the the artist in the context of the artwork. The paper also aims to understand the paintings of BenCab in light of the artist’s political inclinations and bias as part (and in some parts away) from Philippine society. This dichotomy in looking at the artist and the work as both creator and influential to each other ensures the independence of art in historical criticism and analyses.

            The main issue in question throughout this paper is how the artist BenCab attained superstardom in the Philippine art scene in light of his international escapades as artist and how this contributes to his appeal. This paper also tried to look for images that reflect this situation in the life of the artist as seen through his work. Another interest of this paper is to dissect the semiotics involved in his works and integrate these iconographies to Philippine society as we see today. 

            Limited by resources, this paper utilized the internet to tackle the previously mentioned issues. The primary source of information is the official website of BenCab at www.bencab.com. The site provides a complete biography and links to the artist’s most salient works. For convenience, the author limited the study to the “Sabel” collection since:

“’Sabel’ is a major subject that recurs through BenCab's works through the decades, inspired by a real-life scavenger, [sic] he photographed and sketched in 1965, the Sabel image has become the artists [sic] vehicle for the transmission of intensely emotional moods. When pushed to the limits of abstraction, the Sabel image serves as a fertile ground for the investigation of shape and structure.” (http://www.bencab.com/docs/works/sabel.html)

 

           

The collection has 15 paintings as linked in the website. A formal analysis was integral in establishing the genre and style with which the artist is comfortable.

 

Biography

Born in April 10, 1942 in Malabon, Manila, at the onset of the Japanese occupation, he is the youngest of nine children born to Democrito Cabrera and Isabel Reyes of Pampanga. At age six months, his family moves to Mayhaligue St. in Sta. Cruz, Manila. He Starts painting on the pavement and on walls at age seven and is influenced by his older brother Salvador who is already an established artist. Salvador takes him everywhere, exposing him to the world of art. (http://www.bencab.com/docs/artist.html)

Their family moved in 1954 to Bambang ¾ a busy but poor district in Tondo, Manila, peopled with an assortment of colorful characters. It is where he first started to develop a deep sympathy for the underprivileged. He sold comic books door to door and hand towels to jeepney drivers as a source of income.

He won his first art award as a Sixth Grade student at the Balagtas Elementary School in Bambang, for his drawing entry in a poster contest with a human rights theme. He Received P100 as part of the First Prize. As a student at the Arellano High School, he augmented his allowance by doing illustrations for his 59 classmates' science projects, which he sold for P.50 to Pl.00. He would later also draw portraits of James Dean and Elvis Presley to sell to schoolmates for P10. (ibid.)

He enrolled at the University of the Philippines' (U.P.) College of Fine Arts in 1959 but he dropped out of the University in 1963 before finishing his degree in Fine Arts with a major in Illustration.

He then took several jobs like in Liwayway as illustrator, in the United States Information Service as a lay-out artist, in Mirror Magazine as a designer, and in Sunday Times Magazine as illustrator. After which he decided to become a full-time free-lance artist.

By the late '60s, the artist had moved to the Chelsea district of London following his marriage to a British writer and was experimenting with cut-out shapes and etchings. "When I first arrived in London, I was more involved with the trends in Europe," the artist recalled. "After a while, I decided I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon anymore; I wanted to do my own thing, which is when I started doing 'Filipiniana,' a commentary on the past." (http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/13/news/web.bencab.php?page=1)

After his divorce, Bencab returned to the Philippines in 1985 and settled in Baguio, where he has formed a small community of artists around him. "It's my way of giving back," he said. He has also been collecting Filipino artists' work with an idea of establishing a museum. (ibid.)

Sabel

            One of Bencab's lifetime inspirations has been a homeless, deranged woman called Sabel, who used to scavenge around garbage cans in his neighborhood. Clad in a flimsy dress, she would wrap plastic sheets around her body that would billow around her with the wind. To this day, the images are still imprinted in the artist's memory, and Bencab has constantly revisited her portrait since he started the Scavenger Series in the '60s."Every time I make a transition into something new, I work on her," he said. "I like the form, the movement. Now it's almost become an abstract form, just an interpretation, a vague memory." (ibid.)

The Sabel collection studied for this paper has free-flowing lines, a development in his style quite perceptible in his later works. His strokes have become more painterly and the lines curvi-linear. Much like the pieces he has for his Edo collection featuring images of Japanese women which is highly influenced by the 19^th century Japanese printmaker Hokusai. Evident in these works are freer strokes and lines that are more flowing and uninterrupted. The colors are used intensely as the artist explores brighter colors in contrast with his previous collection Larawan in which he primarily used sepia-inspired tones bringing out a rather classic and muted backdrop to it. Although experimenting in lines and colors throughout the three collections, the artist was consistent in establishing major elements of his paintings against a solid background. (http://www.bencab.com/docs/artist.html)

Bencab shows expertise in portraiture as the compositions are well thought. The opportunity to explore form using the subject Sabel was maximized by the artist. He untimidly creates extra interest in the flowing plastic sheets worn by the subject as if challenging reality and putting the viewer in the little world created by Sabel where the plastic sheets are actually her clothes. This attempt to invite the viewer into Sabel’s world is recurrent with the use of abstract elements that makes the paintings breathe an eccentric air that captivates the audience in a manner that is understandable and unique.

            The image of Sabel is a recurring theme in his works. This feeling for the artist’s subject can very well be rooted from his share of economic difficulty when he was young. The previously-mentioned efforts of BenCab to make money to pay for school is perhaps the most logical explanation for his affinity with poverty as a subject.

            In a bigger picture, Sabel’s character is the artist’s means not only to express his personal experience but the experience of Philippine society in general. The statement that he wants to make is, aside from personal, a national one. Here is an image of a woman displaced in the very society that created her and once celebrated womanhood. This very society is now depriving her of opportunity and a decent life. It is not her fault, that is what this collection is all about.

 

Conclusion

            This paper wanted to analyze the national artist BenCab in light of his international exposure vis-à-vis his popularity in contemporary Philippine art scene. This paper also looked into the Sabel collection as linked in the official website of the artist searching for semioic relationship of the collection to the artist.

            This paper discussed the important events in the life of the artist, the formal elements evident in his work, and bridged the historical facts and the aesthetic qualities of the Sabel collection.

            In this relationship, the international status of BenCab is one consideration that is left in the background. The subject matter of the artist created interest in the audence. This attempt to identify with a national issue earned him the status of a “master” and a “national artist.” Linking the aesthetic and the rational was key to his success. This is coupled by his daring nature in experimenting with form and color, leaving the audience always looking after what he will do next. Going international showing local issues is his style for which he is admired for and respected.