By Lorie Ann A. Cascaro
Davao CityTen years after a fieldtrip in my kindergarten, I visited Davao Museum again on a Saturday morning. I would not have bothered if not for the Amorsolos satellite exhibit. The entrance fee piqued me a bit. It made me think that museums are not really for the common folks but for tourists who would like to see in capsule the citys history.
A museum is, for me, a repository of antiquities. It somehow reminds us about the people who used to live in this town. Found in the museum are their weapons, musical instruments, implements, wardrobes and jewelries that have survived the torments of time. The tableaux of Bagobos performing Ginum, a pre-planting festival, which Amorsolos Fruit Harvesting is linked, made me seek deeper meaning of Art, of which museums are known to keep or exhibit.
Fruit Harvesting, one of the paintings of the National Artist Fernando Amorsolo, was created in 1950, a period after the Japanese invasion in 1945. It depicts how life had been for Filipino peasants prior to the war years. Looking at the reproduction, which will be on display at the Davao Museum until January 13, 2009, brings not nostalgic feeling but wishful thinking.
Have our peasants shown the same delightful faces during harvests since the war years ended? Is the same reason to celebrate a bountiful harvest still found in their hearts? I can still see in the Davao barrios farmers plowing with carabaos fields owned by big landlords, or harvesting bananas for exports while consuming root crops for their families survival. It is seldom that I find paintings dwelling on these conditions. I have never been to any museum that shows how historically Filipinos suffer through the long periods of colonization and poverty, and struggle for national liberation.
Some may say that art cannot be portrayed by those realistic scenes. They cant give any aesthetic pleasure but only make people depressed. But, what is art anyway? “L’art pour l’art,” credited to Thophile Gautier (18111872), which means art for arts sake, justifies that any work of art does not need any justification. Anyone then can be an artist by his or her own value of aesthetics. But is art for aesthetics alone? Is it some kind of passion or remedy of an artistic soul who seeks freedom and identity? Is there such thing as art for arts sake?
A Chinese visionary said that “there is in fact no such thing as art for art’s sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics Amorsolos Fruit Harvesting belongs to the basic masses for it expresses the simple lifestyle of the Filipino farmers. Amorsolos exhibit and the Ginum tableaux that are found in the museum, not only attempt to bring us back the memory of abundance and peace, but also stir our consciousness towards the current socio-economic and political condition.
I might not have the same appreciation of this museum ten years ago. But, I hope those students who had the privilege to visit this place have the same realization. They will not merely be awed by looking at those artistic collections. They should also visit our barrios to see the picture of our communities that are still struggling with inequities rooted in history.
Paintings and other works of art greatly influence peoples mind. Art does not just keep memories of the past but also inspires and brings hope for a better future. Museums are worth visiting, as well as the real creator our historythe common people in the barrios.
