City Hall to display 25 paintings to ‘foster students’ love for history
THE 74th Charter Day Celebration of Cebu City Hall will feature 25 pieces of art that depict the history and culture of the Cebuanos.
The City Government, along with proponents of the Downtown Revitalization Project, will conduct an art exhibit in all public schools in the city, as a tribute to Don Vicente Rama, the father of the Cebu City Charter, for his crusade to preserve culture and history.
The exhibit, dubbed the “Don Vicente Memorial Historical Art Exhibit: A Road Show for the Young Citizens of Cebu City,” will showcase paintings of Cebuano artist and historian Manuel Pañares from his 40-year career.
“These paintings are for our children, grandchildren, students and the generations to come. The purpose of this exhibit is for the children and the students to love the history of Cebu and the country,” said Tonette Pañares, a historian and wife of Manuel.
In a news conference yesterday, Tonette said the paintings are based on historical details and the excavated artifacts at the Southwestern University Museum.
The paintings that will be showcased will include the image of Don Vicente, the grandfather of Mayor Michael Rama, as a senator and father of the Cebu City Charter.
Images
The exhibit will also display images of the blood compact between Raja Humabon of Cebu and Ferdinand Magellan, the battle of Mactan, the barter trade at the Port of Cebu, and the Cebuanos’ devotion to the Holy Child Jesus.
With the exhibit, Mayor Rama hopes that the public, particularly the students, will be able to cherish the events of the past.
“Because it is through paintings that we remember the struggle, the love, and the lesson of yesterday,” he said.
Tonette said the exhibit, which will start today, will be toured in 11 public high schools in the city, which celebrates its Charter Day on Feb. 24.
Tonette hopes that after the activity, the schools, together with the Department of Education Cebu City Division, will consider creating a manual on the history of the city for the use of the students.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on February 22, 2011.
The City Government, along with proponents of the Downtown Revitalization Project, will conduct an art exhibit in all public schools in the city, as a tribute to Don Vicente Rama, the father of the Cebu City Charter, for his crusade to preserve culture and history.
The exhibit, dubbed the “Don Vicente Memorial Historical Art Exhibit: A Road Show for the Young Citizens of Cebu City,” will showcase paintings of Cebuano artist and historian Manuel Pañares from his 40-year career.
“These paintings are for our children, grandchildren, students and the generations to come. The purpose of this exhibit is for the children and the students to love the history of Cebu and the country,” said Tonette Pañares, a historian and wife of Manuel.
In a news conference yesterday, Tonette said the paintings are based on historical details and the excavated artifacts at the Southwestern University Museum.
The paintings that will be showcased will include the image of Don Vicente, the grandfather of Mayor Michael Rama, as a senator and father of the Cebu City Charter.
Images
The exhibit will also display images of the blood compact between Raja Humabon of Cebu and Ferdinand Magellan, the battle of Mactan, the barter trade at the Port of Cebu, and the Cebuanos’ devotion to the Holy Child Jesus.
With the exhibit, Mayor Rama hopes that the public, particularly the students, will be able to cherish the events of the past.
“Because it is through paintings that we remember the struggle, the love, and the lesson of yesterday,” he said.
Tonette said the exhibit, which will start today, will be toured in 11 public high schools in the city, which celebrates its Charter Day on Feb. 24.
Tonette hopes that after the activity, the schools, together with the Department of Education Cebu City Division, will consider creating a manual on the history of the city for the use of the students.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on February 22, 2011.
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On the 74th Charter Day Anniversary of Cebu City, February 24, also known as National Arts Month, the city government, through the Downtown Revitalization Project, brings a series of traveling art exhibits to public schools in the city. The Don Vicente Rama Memorial Historical Art Exhibit -a road show for the young citizens of Cebu City, showcases Manuel Pañares’ Historical Paintings, February 22 to March.
Pañares: Portrait of an Artist
By Christina Camingue Buo
Photos courtesy of Pañares archives
“A painting must possess life,” says Cebuano artist Manuel Pañares, who has devoted 40 years of his career to the creation of art and using it to witness the unfolding panorama of events in his time. By portraying and commemorating the struggles and lives of Filipinos, the Mindanao Tribes and the important and inspirational figures in our history, Pañares gives life to Cebuano/Filipino culture and history, thus awakening and raising the people’s cultural consciousness. The love of country springs from the heart of this artist, who knows his country and Cebu’s history, understands the teachings of our heroes and martyrs and fully appreciates our indigenous tribes as well as the sacrifices and accomplishments of our leaders and ancestors. His mission dovetails perfectly with his work as a painter. His passion and strength of character infuse his paintings and instill love of art and country into the hearts and minds of viewers. That is his greatest gift to the Cebuano and the Filipino people. He holds up the mirror to ourselves and helps us to make sense of who we are.
Born in Cebu on December 9, 1946, Emmanuel “Manuel” Pañares began drawing as soon as he could hold a carpenter’s pencil at age three. He had an instinct for art and developed that love of drawing which stayed with him until now. At eight, he remembers seeing for the very first time the art of Fernando Amorsolo, the country’s First National Artist (in Painting), who was a portraitist and painter of Philippine rural landscapes. His friend and fellow Cebuano painter, Jose “Kimsoy” Yap introduced him to the style and craft of Impressionist Martino Abellana, the Dean of Cebuano Painters, who also followed the classical traditions of his master, Amorsolo. But the influences that really shaped him were the works of French Realist/Impressionist Edgar Degas and Painter Paul Gauguin, which is evident in many of his earlier works, especially his pastel & acrylic portraits of the indigenous tribes of Mindanao.
It was the artistic rebel, French Painter Paul Gauguin who was influential in turning his thoughts towards the indigenous tribes of Mindanao. When he was a young boy, he had often heard stories from his neighbor, a hunter, about these beautiful native tribes of the mountains and forests in the south. So he went to Davao, Bukidnon, Pagadian and Cagayan de Oro to see the tribes, which was to figure in many of his works for over two decades. Though he made many trips away from Davao, it remained his home base for 20 years. His wife, Tonette, joined him after a 7-year stint abroad and became his invaluable companion whose perceptive eye had a decided effect on his art. Their home in Davao became a gathering place for the vibrant local arts community, including contemporary pop music artist Joey Ayala, known for his Filipino ethnic sound.
Life in Davao & the Tribes
Pañares began painting portraits of the T’boli, Manobo, Aeta and Bagobo tribes and composed idyllic paintings inspired by his encounters. He got acquainted with them, studied and lived with them. But just like Gauguin, he was to see vividly the crisis of cultural survival that the tribes face today. They were on the verge of extinction as they slowly embraced modernization. By portraying them with the utmost beauty, gracefulness and dignity, he breathed new life into these vanishing tribes. I don’t remember having ever seen alluring and ravishing images of a sleeping Bagobo maiden or a T’boli woman and child, painted with such delicate tenderness and sensitivity. Using his art as a tool for advocacy in cultural and tribal preservation, Manuel Pañares’ idealized paintings of the tribes offer a fresh outlook, a new way of seeing and understanding the beauty and dignity of these tribal Filipinos in Mindanao. In 2002, his paintings of the Tribes of Mindanao gained him the Alibata Award for his distinguished contribution in the Preservation of the Arts.
It was also there in Davao, where he met, in the late 1960’s, National Artist Victorio Edades, the Father of Philippine Modern Art, who took him under his wing, giving him useful advice and inspiring him to devote himself wholly to art. In this early training under his master and friend, Pañares learned the philosophy & techniques of mural painting.
Edades & Pañares worked together on two murals, namely: Kasaysayan ng Lahi for Interbank Manila, and the Central Bank mural which known as the longest mural in Philippine art history, portraying the balance between agriculture and economic growth in Davao.
In 1986 during the EDSA Revolution, his painting “Pilipinas Kong Mahal” (My Beloved Philippines) which depicted the social and political realities of that time was purchased by Davao-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Swiss Director Walter Berweger. It wasn’t long before Berweger and his team was ambushed by young Muslim rebels during a mission to Budlon in Maguindanao. The painting was returned to Pañares by Berweger’s fiancée. It became a testament for the times and a poignant reminder of little-known heroes who offered their lives for the sake of humanity.
Crossing Boundaries and Forging Links Abroad
Between the 70’s and 80’s, the somewhat shy, soft-spoken and self-taught artist, Pañares, was hosting one-man exhibits in Cebu, Davao, Pagadian, Bukidnon (Mindanao) and in Manila. In 1992, he joined 16 other Cebuano/Visayan artists on a cultural mission to the United States to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and to raise the profile of the artists from Cebu and the Visayas (central Philippines). In New York and Washington, there were many influences at work to affect him. He absorbed and transformed all that he had extracted from others into his own style and vision.
In 1996, Manuel and his curator-wife, Tonette pooled all their cultural resources to bring a one-man mobile exhibit, ‘Mindanao Tribes’, to the United States as a joint cultural program for the second generation Filipino Americans. Both were on a mission to raise awareness and promote advocacy for cultural and tribal preservation, with Tonette also conducting a lecture-series on the “Dignity of the Mindanao Indigenous Tribes” and other pressing issues such as environmental preservation, etc. The US tour commenced in New York (Philippine Consulate in Manhattan), then moved on to Washington D.C., New Jersey, Florida (Orlando), Los Angeles and Carson City in California.
In conjunction with this mobile show, Manuel’s advocacy received a major boost with the establishment of a virtual presence on the internet. The CAI Gallery (Cebu Artists Inc.) unveiled a website that allowed users from all over the world to view his paintings, “Sugbo sa Karaang Panahon” (Cebu in the Old Days).
His paintings showcasing the Philippine Indigenous Tribes and the collection, “Sugbo Sa Karaang Panahon”, which is based on the Pigafetta chronicle, received the ALIBATA Award for his outstanding contribution for the preservation of Philippine Arts and Culture from the Global Foundation for International Education (Centre for International Education) in Mabolo, Cebu.
His finely wrought portraits of the Philippine Revolutionary Heroes, Former President Cory Aquino, ASEAN Diplomat Narciso Ramos and his son, former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, Cebuano Senator Don Vicente Rama and the Mindanao Tribes were admired and collected by the Ninoy Aquino Foundation, the Freemason Society in Cebu, Mrs. Alfonsita Ramos, the stepmother of former President Ramos and former Cultural Officer of the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles (USA), Honorary Consul of the United States John Domingo, Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice and Senate President Marcelo B. Fernan, Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama, Art and Antique Collector Rene Mercado, 1730 Jesuit House Proprietor Jimmy Sy, Dr. Lydia Aznar Alfonso of the Southwestern University Museum in Cebu, Philippine Women’s College of Davao, St. Theresa’s College Cebu’s Folklife Museum and the Center of International Education (CIE).
* One of the highlights of Cebu City’s 74th Charter Day Celebration, The Don Vicente Rama Memorial Historical Art Exhibit – a road show for the young citizens of Cebu City, takes students on a tour of local history through art. Featuring Manuel Pañares’ paintings of local heroes and historic events, the traveling exhibit will be touring Lahug National High School, Florencio Urot High School, Don Vicente Rama National High School, Abellana National High School, Zapatera National High School, Tejero National High School, Gothong Memorial High School, Inayawan National High School, Labangon National High School and Don Sergio Osmeña National High School, among others, Feb. 22 until March.
The Historical Art Paintings of Manuel Pañares will also be on view at the Casino Español de Cebu on February 25, People Power EDSA Day.
For more info, email Tonette Pañares on: [email protected] ***********
On the 74th Charter Day Anniversary of Cebu City, February 24, also known as National Arts Month, the city government, through the Downtown Revitalization Project, brings a series of traveling art exhibits to public schools in the city. The Don Vicente Rama Memorial Historical Art Exhibit -a road show for the young citizens of Cebu City, showcases Manuel Pañares’ Historical Paintings, February 22 to March.
Pañares: Portrait of an Artist
By Christina Camingue Buo
Photos courtesy of Pañares archives
“A painting must possess life,” says Cebuano artist Manuel Pañares, who has devoted 40 years of his career to the creation of art and using it to witness the unfolding panorama of events in his time. By portraying and commemorating the struggles and lives of Filipinos, the Mindanao Tribes and the important and inspirational figures in our history, Pañares gives life to Cebuano/Filipino culture and history, thus awakening and raising the people’s cultural consciousness. The love of country springs from the heart of this artist, who knows his country and Cebu’s history, understands the teachings of our heroes and martyrs and fully appreciates our indigenous tribes as well as the sacrifices and accomplishments of our leaders and ancestors. His mission dovetails perfectly with his work as a painter. His passion and strength of character infuse his paintings and instill love of art and country into the hearts and minds of viewers. That is his greatest gift to the Cebuano and the Filipino people. He holds up the mirror to ourselves and helps us to make sense of who we are.
Born in Cebu on December 9, 1946, Emmanuel “Manuel” Pañares began drawing as soon as he could hold a carpenter’s pencil at age three. He had an instinct for art and developed that love of drawing which stayed with him until now. At eight, he remembers seeing for the very first time the art of Fernando Amorsolo, the country’s First National Artist (in Painting), who was a portraitist and painter of Philippine rural landscapes. His friend and fellow Cebuano painter, Jose “Kimsoy” Yap introduced him to the style and craft of Impressionist Martino Abellana, the Dean of Cebuano Painters, who also followed the classical traditions of his master, Amorsolo. But the influences that really shaped him were the works of French Realist/Impressionist Edgar Degas and Painter Paul Gauguin, which is evident in many of his earlier works, especially his pastel & acrylic portraits of the indigenous tribes of Mindanao.
It was the artistic rebel, French Painter Paul Gauguin who was influential in turning his thoughts towards the indigenous tribes of Mindanao. When he was a young boy, he had often heard stories from his neighbor, a hunter, about these beautiful native tribes of the mountains and forests in the south. So he went to Davao, Bukidnon, Pagadian and Cagayan de Oro to see the tribes, which was to figure in many of his works for over two decades. Though he made many trips away from Davao, it remained his home base for 20 years. His wife, Tonette, joined him after a 7-year stint abroad and became his invaluable companion whose perceptive eye had a decided effect on his art. Their home in Davao became a gathering place for the vibrant local arts community, including contemporary pop music artist Joey Ayala, known for his Filipino ethnic sound.
Life in Davao & the Tribes
Pañares began painting portraits of the T’boli, Manobo, Aeta and Bagobo tribes and composed idyllic paintings inspired by his encounters. He got acquainted with them, studied and lived with them. But just like Gauguin, he was to see vividly the crisis of cultural survival that the tribes face today. They were on the verge of extinction as they slowly embraced modernization. By portraying them with the utmost beauty, gracefulness and dignity, he breathed new life into these vanishing tribes. I don’t remember having ever seen alluring and ravishing images of a sleeping Bagobo maiden or a T’boli woman and child, painted with such delicate tenderness and sensitivity. Using his art as a tool for advocacy in cultural and tribal preservation, Manuel Pañares’ idealized paintings of the tribes offer a fresh outlook, a new way of seeing and understanding the beauty and dignity of these tribal Filipinos in Mindanao. In 2002, his paintings of the Tribes of Mindanao gained him the Alibata Award for his distinguished contribution in the Preservation of the Arts.
It was also there in Davao, where he met, in the late 1960’s, National Artist Victorio Edades, the Father of Philippine Modern Art, who took him under his wing, giving him useful advice and inspiring him to devote himself wholly to art. In this early training under his master and friend, Pañares learned the philosophy & techniques of mural painting.
Edades & Pañares worked together on two murals, namely: Kasaysayan ng Lahi for Interbank Manila, and the Central Bank mural which known as the longest mural in Philippine art history, portraying the balance between agriculture and economic growth in Davao.
In 1986 during the EDSA Revolution, his painting “Pilipinas Kong Mahal” (My Beloved Philippines) which depicted the social and political realities of that time was purchased by Davao-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Swiss Director Walter Berweger. It wasn’t long before Berweger and his team was ambushed by young Muslim rebels during a mission to Budlon in Maguindanao. The painting was returned to Pañares by Berweger’s fiancée. It became a testament for the times and a poignant reminder of little-known heroes who offered their lives for the sake of humanity.
Crossing Boundaries and Forging Links Abroad
Between the 70’s and 80’s, the somewhat shy, soft-spoken and self-taught artist, Pañares, was hosting one-man exhibits in Cebu, Davao, Pagadian, Bukidnon (Mindanao) and in Manila. In 1992, he joined 16 other Cebuano/Visayan artists on a cultural mission to the United States to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and to raise the profile of the artists from Cebu and the Visayas (central Philippines). In New York and Washington, there were many influences at work to affect him. He absorbed and transformed all that he had extracted from others into his own style and vision.
In 1996, Manuel and his curator-wife, Tonette pooled all their cultural resources to bring a one-man mobile exhibit, ‘Mindanao Tribes’, to the United States as a joint cultural program for the second generation Filipino Americans. Both were on a mission to raise awareness and promote advocacy for cultural and tribal preservation, with Tonette also conducting a lecture-series on the “Dignity of the Mindanao Indigenous Tribes” and other pressing issues such as environmental preservation, etc. The US tour commenced in New York (Philippine Consulate in Manhattan), then moved on to Washington D.C., New Jersey, Florida (Orlando), Los Angeles and Carson City in California.
In conjunction with this mobile show, Manuel’s advocacy received a major boost with the establishment of a virtual presence on the internet. The CAI Gallery (Cebu Artists Inc.) unveiled a website that allowed users from all over the world to view his paintings, “Sugbo sa Karaang Panahon” (Cebu in the Old Days).
His paintings showcasing the Philippine Indigenous Tribes and the collection, “Sugbo Sa Karaang Panahon”, which is based on the Pigafetta chronicle, received the ALIBATA Award for his outstanding contribution for the preservation of Philippine Arts and Culture from the Global Foundation for International Education (Centre for International Education) in Mabolo, Cebu.
His finely wrought portraits of the Philippine Revolutionary Heroes, Former President Cory Aquino, ASEAN Diplomat Narciso Ramos and his son, former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, Cebuano Senator Don Vicente Rama and the Mindanao Tribes were admired and collected by the Ninoy Aquino Foundation, the Freemason Society in Cebu, Mrs. Alfonsita Ramos, the stepmother of former President Ramos and former Cultural Officer of the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles (USA), Honorary Consul of the United States John Domingo, Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice and Senate President Marcelo B. Fernan, Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama, Art and Antique Collector Rene Mercado, 1730 Jesuit House Proprietor Jimmy Sy, Dr. Lydia Aznar Alfonso of the Southwestern University Museum in Cebu, Philippine Women’s College of Davao, St. Theresa’s College Cebu’s Folklife Museum and the Center of International Education (CIE).
* One of the highlights of Cebu City’s 74th Charter Day Celebration, The Don Vicente Rama Memorial Historical Art Exhibit – a road show for the young citizens of Cebu City, takes students on a tour of local history through art. Featuring Manuel Pañares’ paintings of local heroes and historic events, the traveling exhibit will be touring Lahug National High School, Florencio Urot High School, Don Vicente Rama National High School, Abellana National High School, Zapatera National High School, Tejero National High School, Gothong Memorial High School, Inayawan National High School, Labangon National High School and Don Sergio Osmeña National High School, among others, Feb. 22 until March.
The Historical Art Paintings of Manuel Pañares will also be on view at the Casino Español de Cebu on February 25, People Power EDSA Day.
For more info, email Tonette Pañares on: [email protected] ***********