Word Art anyone?

I've never expected to see so much Word Art in Paris+ Art Basel! 

The first time I came across using words as a form of art was in the painting of American pop artist Robert Indiana. In 1965 he used four letters L-O-V-E against a backdrop of blue and green color.

I actually googled and found out that Word Art has been used since the 1950s by artists classified as postmodern. 

The definition of Word Art  is "text-based imagery featuring words and phrases in a variety of media including painting, sculpture,  lithography, screen printing, applied art, and projection mapping. Jasper Johns started inserting text in his artworks as early as 1957, followed by Roy Lichenstein and Andy Warhol. 

Elena Martinque described it as, "Thoughtfully utilizing text as a primary vehicle of communication in their artistic expression, these artists created works that pushed boundaries, shocked and seduced.

Several expressions of Word Art were displayed at the art fair. I was intrigued by the work of Tony Coke's lightbox. It featured Kanye West's comments: "I am the number one human being in music.... I am Warhol. I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation" on 9 x 7 solid blue and red tiles. Apologies that I wasn't able to note the name of the artist, title and gallery of the last three artworks below:

Tony Coke's Face Value (Kanye West), 2011, edition 3, lightbox with duratran print, Greene Naftali Gallery

Lawrence Weiner's In & Our of Place Carried by Its Own Weight, 2011 l, Mai 36 Galerie

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1983, Van de Weghe Fine Art

Joël Andrianomearisoa, J'embrasse l'air du soir, 2020

Maria Pask, My Vagina is not Ugly, 2020, Gouache and Pencil on Chinese paper, Ellen de Bruijne Projects

I asked one of the galleries representing a Word Art artist for a stand-alone text priced at 10,000 euros. He said that the artwork's owner could use it in a billboard, for instance, for as long as the integrity of the text's font and spacing are retained. Not bad. it's like purchasing a copyright. 

Gai, Ricky and I at the end of the Grand Palais Éphémère 

The Paris+ par Art Basel, the new Modern and contemporary art fair, opened its doors at the Grand Palais Éphémère from October 20 to 23 with 156 galleries participating from 30 countries 

Edvard Munch at the Museee d'Orsay

Since college, I’ve always been fascinated by Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893). It’s a painting of someone desperate, screaming, and haunted by external forces. 

Artsper describes it as “a panic-stricken creature, simultaneously corpselike and reminiscent of a sperm or fetus, whose contours are echoed in the swirling lines of the blood-red sky.”

Nick Mafi wrote, “When he painted The Scream in 1893, Munch was inspired by “a gust of melancholy,” as he declared in his diary. It’s because of this, coupled with the artist’s personal life trauma, that the painting takes on a feeling of alienation, of the abnormal.”

I’m glad I went to see the exhibition in the Musee d’Orsay depicting the 60 years of his life from 1863 to1944. Over 150 pieces of his work are presented, including about sixty paintings, drawings, engravings, photographs, etchings, drypoints, lithographs, and woodcuts.

The exhibit is not organized chronologically. The curator focused more on the cycle of life, death and rebirth. 

Self Portrait with Burning Cigarette (1895) is the first painting on display

The Sick Child (1885-86), 15-year old bedridden sister Sophie who died from tuberculosis at 11

The Kiss (1897)

Vampire (1893), initially titled Love and Pain

The Girls on the Bridge (1899)

Evening on Karl Johan Street (1892(

Metabolism, Life and Death (1898)

Death of Marat (1907)

one of the paintings of his sister with his mother, who passed away earlier, standing

Self portrait

Study of Metabolism

Woodcut of Madonna (1894-95)

The Sun (1912), one of 11 paintings commissioned for Oslo University's ceremonial assembly hall

The show ended with Starry Night where he was alluded to Van Gogh in the birth of expressionism

Note, though, if you’re expecting to see The Scream, it’s not hanging. There are studies of it in this show:

If you’re in Paris and interested in modern expressionism, don’t miss this show, “Edvard Munch. A poem of life, love, and death,” which will run until January 22, 2023, at the Musee d’Orsay.

Elmer Borlongan's first solo exhibit in Paris

Bravo to Elmer Borlongan's first solo exhibit in Paris, "When Time Stood Still".

The exhibit presented 15 paintings and monotypes.

Béatrice de Rochebouet wrote, "Produced during the Covid years, his new series draws on his past experiences and observations but is more introspective. What is important to each of us after the pandemic we experienced? What is the meaning of life from now on," these are all questions that led Elmer Borlongan, 55 years old, with a voluntary face animated by a bright smile, to push his work further... The colors are dark like the power of the darkness of the tormented landscapes of Evrard Munch, the distorted figures like the tortured bodies of Egon Shiele that the triumphant suffering metamorphoses into pure beauty." 

his muse, Plet Bolipata-Borlongan

Elmer with Jonatthan Matti

Friends and art collectors joined the artist at the exhibit opening on October 20:

Ricky Yusay, moi, Bea Garcia, Edouard Garcia and Gai Olivares

Elmer with H.E. Juvener M. Mahilum-West, Philippine Ambassador to France

Moi with art patrons Hetty and Paulino Que, Lori Juvida and Bobby Gopiao.

Asia Now Parisi Art Fair exhibitor Vinyl on Vinyl with artists

The exhibit will run until November 20, 2022 at Galerie Géraldine Banier, located at Saint-Germain-des-Prés   at 54, rue Jacob Paris.

Emong Borlongan 20 years retrospective exhibit

with Emong and Plet at the opening, his self portrait behind

What a show! Congratulations Emong on your first twenty years retrospective "In City and Country (1992-2012)" at  the Ayala Museum.

44 paintings, each has a story to tell. If you sit down with him, he'll tell you the story and inspiration behind each painting.  For instance, the 1992 'Birheng Walang Dambana'  (Virgin without an altar) is about his friend whose girlfriend ditched him for a rich guy. He found an apt title from Victor Wood's song of the same title.

The 1994 painting "Lumang Litrato" which has never been exhibited before, is about a newly widowed elderly man whom he met and shared with him that he misses his wife.

Birheng Walang Dambana, 1992

Lumang Littrato (1994)

Emong's tatay with his  eacher 

The title of the show "In City and Country"  best describes the source of inspiration of his works - basically, the people that surround him and the hustle and bustle of his milieu. I was able to witness his genius [and also Plet's] from 1998 to 2002 when they were still living in the City, in Nueve de Pebrero in Mandaluyong where he grew up; and from 2002 to now, in Zambales, in the farm of Plet's family.

He said in an interview about his art "The human figure continues to be the focus of my works. The sound and fury of Manila street scenes have been the fitting accompaniment to the figures that graced my works throughout the years."

Self portrati in ID Picture (1995)  

Driver's Lounge (2011)

San Miguel Fluvial Parade (2010)

Of his life in Zambales, he said "I paint in a studio in the middle of a mango farm surrounded by the sound of a sometimes wailing sea and the chirping of the birds. My immediate environment within the home and in the outskirts of the farm presents an engaging scenario of various characters that I have mingled with. Not to mention my exposure to all my brother-in-law's pupils...There are religious rituals that give pomp and circumstance to the practice of the faith. And of course, there is the sea, a character in itself, that is sometimes disconcerting when my wife worries about "imagined tsumanis in her head" but is a refreshing blue field of delight on hot summer days."

Time flies by so fast. I remember meeting Emong for the first time in 1996. I was watching the concert of the Bolipata brothers in Sta. Ana Park and Plet introduced him to me. I was actually wondering what she was doing in Manila. The last time I saw her, she was happily studying at The Arts Student League and helping out as a paralegal in New York. She said she waiting for her US working visa.

the painting that started it all, Gabay (1994)

The following year in April, Plet was still in town. She invited me to CASA San Miguel, the arts center her brother Coke built in their farm, to join the 2nd Pundaquit Earth Day Festival. Both she and Emong were commissioned by Coke to do a mural. Both were holed up in Zambales as artists-in-residence. Plet's mural was to grace the entrance foyer while Emong's 13 x 18 feet mural was the centerpiece of the Ramon Corpus Concert Hall.

I can't forget that weekend. That Friday evening before heading out to Zambales, Plet was in tears because the star of the festival had an emergency and backed out. That meant, CASA didn't have a folk-rock concert to cap the festival. We found out that Joey Ayala was having a concert in Ayala and rushed to him. Plet, usually shy, gathered her wits and all thick-skinned, walked up to Joey after his performance. He must have sympathized with Plet who was still in tears because the next day, he showed up with his band in CASA.

So, the festival was a success... and the rest is history as the saying goes. By the way, Plet did get her visa, nonetheless stayed on. Of their first meeting, Emong said -

Emong's "In City and Country" exhibit will be on view until April 6, 2014. Don't miss it!

N.B. here's a painting of one of our dinners in Nueve de Pebrero (not exhibited, owner: Arthur).

There's hope for Autism!

I remember way back in the mid-1990s when my sister Chato was worried about her daughter. Mrs. Ladron of the toddler school where my niece was enrolled in, found her behavior way too rowdy and too independent for a three year old and recommended that she goes to Cupertino Center instead. At that time, there was only one school for special children and most of the students were autistic.

My niece was enrolled for 3 months or so. until my sister pulled her out when she started copying her classmates and was banging her head against the wall, desk or floor.  Autistic children would display certain behaviors and head banging is the most common. Chato took her  to Berkeley where she, after several tests, was diagnosed with ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It was fairly novel then and since the symptoms were quite similar with autism, the two conditions more often than not, caused confusion and even misdiagnosis.

J.A.  next to his stamp
(photo from facebook.com/artofjatan)

Mayo Clinic defines autism as a "spectrum disorder that affects a child's ability to communicate and interact with others."  According to CDC, autism is now more prevalent than childhood cancer. The rate is rather alarming in the United States, with stats indicating one in 88 children diagnosed with autism versus 16 in 100,000 children with cancer.  In the Philippines, the incidence is still low.  Autismpinoy said that at least one in 150 children is autistic.

That's why I was happy to hear that Jose Antonio "J.A." Tan is back in Manila to open his second one-man exhibit called "On and On... Step by Step" on August 21. He's the inspiration to those with autism and/or other development disabilities.

Like my niece, J.A. was 3 years old when he was diagnosed with autism. His was high functioning autism which literally means he is higher functioning than others with the same affliction.

At 5 years old, he started painting and from then on, has managed to overcome his challenges through his art.  He said "I have come to the realization that I have always used art as a way of  helping myself bring out my thoughts, feelings and ideas. I consider it an integral part of my existence as each work is a personal journey of myself with myself, and myself with the world, bringing a feeling of peace and happiness since things become clearer to me through the images and visual pictures before me."

"Victory" (Photo from straight.com)

Now 25-years old, he has already accomplished quite a lot - -  He graduated from Emily Carr University of Art in 2010, followed by a one-man show in Manila (his first), then participated in group shows in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Last year, his  painting "Victory" (left) was chosen from over 200 submissions to be part of the eight stamp collection of the United Nations Postal Administration's Autism Awareness Campaign. His artwork was issued as a stamp on April 22, 2012. Note that the print is part of the exhibition in Manila.

To those who want to meet the artist who braved all odds, the opening reception  is on August 21 from 6:30 to 9:30pm.  The exhibit will run until September 3, 2013 at the Artist Space, ground floor of the Ayala Museum.