The art of BenCab
LOVE is a powerful emotion that invokes other feelings as well as actions; sometimes these feelings are unwanted and could leave us contemplating about why they surfaced or how we are capable of acting out in the name of love. But love isn’t the only thing capable of moving a person, or effecting a surge of powerful emotions – art shares that same power. As a renowned yet anonymous quote said, “art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”
In the Philippines, there are many proponents when it comes to the arts. Museums, galleries and orchestras contain proof of the artistic genius produced by brilliant minds throug the years. The walls of the National Museum of Fine Arts are adorned with the works of one of thevbest-selling artists of this generation – Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera.
He was bestowed the Order of National Artist for Visual Arts in 2006 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. BenCab has been drawing since he was seven years old, filling out sheets of paper of all sizes with his art that touches humanism.
One wouldn’t say he was born with art, but due to the influence of a pro- lific painter in their family—his elder brother Salvador—BenCab became enamored with art.
His natural talent was recognized early, when he won first prize (earning him a whopping P100) in a poster-making contest at the Balagtas Elementary School in Bambang, Tondo. When he was in high school, BenCab added to his allowance by drawing science projects for his classmates and by copying portraits of James Dean and Elvis Presley from magazines, which he would then sell.
Modern- day cameras would dull in comparison to BenCab’s perception of his surroundings; whatever caught his mind’s eye would be committed to paper.
In his college years at the University of the Philippines’ College of Fine Arts, he had the opportunity to be taught and work alongside renowned abstract painter, Jose Joya, who posthumously received the National Artist for Visual Arts in Painting last 2001.
Throughout the years, Benedicto Cabrera became an icon in the Philippine art scene. He is widely known for his abstract and minimalist contemporary art but he draws his inspiration from life itself. BenCab never fails to capture the delicate movements and raw emotions of the people he encountered in life and even in his memories. For BenCab, there are three things an artist needs in order to succeed: “Curiosity, passion, and making art from life.”
An instance of making art from life was depicted through one of BenCab’s works – Sabel. When he was in his apartment in Bambang, he saw a disheveled woman wearing scraps of plastic, wandering the street, scavenging for food.
At the time, Cabrera was working as an illustrator and layout artist for a magazine. But after seeing the woman, he seized the opportunity and drew abstract sketches of the subject. He considers that woman, who he named “Sabel”, is not just a representation of a homeless woman. She could be any Filipina. To BenCab, Sabel was human and he wanted to capture that essence.
During the later part of the 1960s, BenCab’s personal life took him to London where he took printmaking classes and participated in gallery shows. He discovered colonial Filipino photographs at antique shops in Chelsea. These photographs became the visual anchor of his Larawan series which he exhibited at the Luz Gallery after his return to the Philippines in 1972. At the time the country was in social and political turmoil. The exhibit elicited strong public interest because it was familiar and sent a message.
After residing in London for 13 years, he finally decided to come home to the Philippines and stay for good, settling down in his cousin’s house in Baguio, where the climate was similar to London’s.
Eventually, the BenCab Museum was established, housing the artist’s collection of artwork, along with those of renowned Filipino masters as well as up and coming contemporary artists.
The BenCab Museum is dedicated to promoting the arts as well as the preservation, conservation, and protection of the environment and the culture and traditions of the Cordilleras. The BenCab Museum is located at 6
AsinRd,Tuba, 2602 Benguet and is open on Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:00am to 6:00pm.