Botong Francisco

Yesterday I went to visit the family home of Carlos "Botong" Francisco--National Artist for Visual Arts and one of the greatest painters and muralists the Philippines has ever produced--in Angono, Rizal. We're doing a book on Botong under our Arte Filipino imprint, which publishes compact volumes on the lives and works of master Filipino artists.  I came to Angono with our managing editor Chris, Patrick Flores (editor of the book and noted art critic and scholar), and Danilo Reyes, who is writing the biographical essay on Botong for the book. We met Carlos Francisco II (or Totong), grandson of the artist, and Salvador Juban, his apprentice. The only son Rodolfo Francisco wasn't able to come for our scheduled appointment, but Chris hopes to interview him when he returns with a photographer this week to photograph the memorabilia, press clippings and pictures belonging to the family and to Juban.

The family home is currently under renovation. After he died, Botong's studio became something like a museum, which apparently turned into a favorite destination for teachers and school children. They didn't visit for the art, since Botong's famous murals and paintings were commissioned and so belonged to private and institutional collections. Instead they came to look at the evocative black-and-white photographs of the artist at work and at play; his collection of knives, baskets, and kulintang; photographic slides of buildings and artwork, which, according to Totong, the family used to view with an ancient slide projector; a selection of his canvas shoes and straw hats, visual accompaniments to memories of Botong taking long walks along the shore of Laguna de Bay; an easel; his favorite chair. 

When we visited yesterday, the reconstructed studio still smelled of plaster and unswept dust. The shoes were stacked haphazardly on a low-lying shelf, the photographs and kulintang propped against the wall. An old basket contained what remained of Botong's magazine clippings and correspondence. I sorted the postcards and torn photographs, trying to find some personal memento which we can include in the book. But according to Totong, most photographs of his grandfather belonged to the photographers who took them. Their own albums were empty. 

I sat for a while in Botong's chair where he used to curl up for hours on end, eyes closed and dreaming of his murals. Juban said that some critics used to accuse Botong of being lazy because he was prone to long periods of inactivity when he would do nothing but lie somnolent and unmoving, rousing himself only to watch his favorite Westerns on TV. But then, one morning, Juban would arrive in the studio to find Botong at work on his canvas, focused and intense. During those times you could not talk to him. He would barely eat and sleep; he worked as if possessed, as if he was still dreaming. I suppose that for Botong art was a constant dream, a never-ending magical vision. 

No such visions came to me while I sat, my face tilted up to the hot sunlight that streamed in through the wide windows of the studio. I remembered the gold plaque, attached to the gate leading into the house, proclaiming Botong as National Artist. He was hailed as the "poet of Angono" who, by evoking the past, also managed to make the Filipino present come alive. A self-proclaimed regional painter whose attachment to his hometown of Angono never wavered, his art embodied the universality of myth and memory. Botong created--in the words of Gus Vibal--vibrant images of "Filipino power and beauty" in an era that saw the slow and torturous collapse of a society racked by political and economic strife. But he never had any aspirations of using his art to reinvent the Philippines; he left it to the politicians and generals to chart their destructive utopias. What he did was restore to Filipinos a powerful sense of self and nationhood. He did not dream of skyscrapers, wide boulevards or well-oiled machines; he dreamed of the movements of water, the fluidity of color, the richness of flowers, the touch of hands, blood spilled transforming into the curve of a girl's smile.

Comments

[Angono Art City]

Angono is really blessed to have a proud son - Carlos "Botong" Francisco. He is Angono and Angono is Botong. The fruits of his talent and hardwork is reaping up to the present time.

Angono Art City
Philippine Art at its Best!
Filipino Culture & Traditions Alive!

[derrick macutay]

Thanks for dropping by at Botong's place and Ninong Juban's studio. Angono is truly blessed with gifted artists but the real treasure of Angono is its people and rich culture. Truly a cauldron of inspiration for artists and art enthusiats alike.

[DARYL DESCALLAR]

I am inspired by the works of Botong Francisco. I hope I will find your book when it is on sale in bookstores.
Best regards, Daryl Descallar