Mabini Art derives its name from Mabini Street in Ermita, Manila, where artists opened art shops after World War II. Existing records show that in 1930 there were none yet of these art shops. Two persons claimed to have opened in 1949 the first art gallery in Ermita, namely, Miguel Galvez and Simon Saulog. That was the year before Lyd Arguilla set up the Philippine Art Gallery on Arquiza street. The history of the so-called “Mabini school,” which was established after the 1955 walkout by the “conservatives,” can be traced back to their idol, Maestro Fernando Amorsolo. As the first practitioners of Mabini Art, the “conservatives” carried on their style of painting, then called the “Amorsolo school.” The “Amorsolo school” was identified with the “realism” of Amorsolo in contrast to the “modernism” espoused by Victorio Edades and his followers.
Paco Gorospe and the second-generation Mabini artists
Paco Gorospe was a self-taught painter who belonged to the second generation of Mabini artists, based on the periodization I developed in my research work. He was a good friend of Asing Wong, Roger San Miguel, Ben Alano and Cesar Buenaventura. Paco started painting in his 20s and was encouraged by his artist-friends to pursue his interest. He put up his first gallery in 1968 on Mabini Street, a few years after he started taking to painting. Paco’s gallery displayed almost exclusively his works, whereas his friend Asing rarely displayed his works even in his own gallery. And while Asing engaged mainly in art dealing and painted on the side, Paco occupied himself with painting and selling his own works and a few others. After some time, Paco moved to A. Flores Street. He occupied this second gallery until 1984. His third gallery, the Contemporary Art Gallery, was located at the Pistang Pilipino commercial complex. It was named after the style of his works which was considered “modern” in Ermita.
Among those who helped Paco attain his status as a painter were Lyd Arguilla, Hernando Ocampo, Cesar Buenaventura, Leonardo Zablan, and Salvador Cabrera. Buenaventura, Zablan, and Cabrera whom he met in 1964 were the first to encourage him to paint, having noticed his keen interest in painting. H.R. Ocampo, then already a respected modern artist, further encouraged Paco when he saw the latter’s potential in art. It was through the support of Lyd Arguilla, then curator of the Philippine Art Gallery, that Paco was able to hold his first one-man show at the said gallery in 1965. In the same year, he had two group shows, one in Bacolod City at the Cypress Hotel with Alfred Buenaventura and Roger San Miguel, and the other in Switzerland with Cesar Buenaventura. The exhibit in Switzerland featured “conservative” and “modern” Philippine art, Buenaventura’s works representing the “conservative” and Paco’s the “modern.”
(Excerpt by Klaus W. Hartung, Consultant, Art Collector and Rizalist from the book Revisiting Mabini Art, published in 2013, Germany)
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