'A change of attitude in art market needed'

A PROFESSOR of art history and connoisseurship laments how art has lost its true value precisely because it is considered as a commodity.

As such, much change is needed in today’s attitude toward the art market.

Santiago Pilar, University of the Philippines Fine Arts professor, said art should be valued for its historical value, age, provenance and refinement and not for any commercial value imposed by traders themselves.

“A lot has to be done to straighten the valuation of art since it is done by people involved in its trade and not an expert panel. The value has become self-serving,” Pilar said during a recent meeting of Rotary Club of Makati North.

Pilar noted that art should be valued Filipino race.

“The age of an artwork says a lot about so if we already had a painting dated in the 1700s, it shows that Filipinos have conveyed artistic prowess even long ago,” he told The Manila Times.

Pilar said other factors are: historical in our history”; size for the labor costs; and provenance as there are many fakers and forgers of art nowadays.

Pi lar, who had spent most of his young age procuring and studying art of old masters, said the spotlight need not stay on big names such as Fernando Amorsolo or Juan Luna as some of their contemporaries and students have capable works of art as well.

“The only artists we feature are those who have known name s . Actually they are artificially hyped like for example there is one artist who has a millionswor th of work while we have old masters who have pract ic ed long before them and they were wel lknown then but they aren’t that valued today because they are not hyped,” he added.

Members of the club during the meeting lamented how there is very little to be said about the art of the country as the “government has very little budget for acquisi

Pilar, known for his reconstruction of Philippine colonial art history, said many aspects of national arts should be reconstructed both from the government and the market itself.

“There are many people who say that why does other countries show they pride of their museums and art, while us in the Philippines, we do not pay attention to our own?” he said.

The UP fine arts professor has authored Philippine art history books that are revered in the industry.