Showing his mettle as he meddles with metals
There's often a tendency among older, established artists to repeat themselves. Sixty-four-year- old Filipino painter Benedicto Cabrera, better known as Bencab, is acutely aware of the danger.
'You have to resist taking the easy route, but it's difficult,' he says. 'There are many temptations. I have ideas, desires. For example, I want to set up a private museum to house my collection of Philippine paintings and Cordillera artefacts, and you need money for that. So, it's about getting the right balance between pushing the envelope and giving your collectors what they've come to expect.'
Bencab was recently awarded the Order of National Artist for Visual Arts, confirming his position as, arguably, the most sought-after Filipino painter.
British actress-turned-politician Glenda Jackson gave Bencab his first solo show outside the Philippines, after she bought eight of his paintings and invited him to exhibit at her husband's gallery. In May, one of his acrylics, Woman with Basket, sold for a personal record of HK$600,000 at auction in Hong Kong.
Bencab says that although he often revisits the themes he first developed in the 1970s - such as the impact of colonisation and migration - he also challenges himself by using new techniques and media.
Bencab on Paper: Prints and Paper Pulp Paintings, an exhibition at the Cultural Centre of the Philippines in Manila until September 3, is a mini-retrospective. On display are works from the 70s along with later etchings, woodblocks and paper-pulp pieces he completed at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) last year during a four-week residency.
'I wanted the viewer to connect my earlier etchings to the new ones,' he says. 'My earlier work was more traditional etching with fine lines, but the STPI work is more experimental and also has grown in scale.'
Curator Ambeth Ocampo says the STPI facilities allowed Bencab 'to push the parameters of his craft' by exploring new techniques and new technology. 'Even the colours in his Singapore works differ from those on his palette in the Philippines.'
During his 40-year career, Bencab has explored issues related to indigenous culture, the impact of colonisation and the disillusionment and desperation of 20th-century Filipino migrants. He say the defining moment in his career was when he discovered rare Filipiniana prints and photographs in antique bookshops in London during the early 70s. These works inspired Larawan, a series of sepia-toned acrylic paintings, in which Bencab tries to link the past with present issues.
'Filipiniana is like rediscovering your roots,' he says. 'The more you get away from your country the more you get nostalgic about it. I guess that's what happened to me.'
Bencab was also influenced by images he saw when growing up of scavenger women and their billowing make-shift clothes of plastic sheets. The images inspired the Sabel series, which Bencab says is more a composite of several scavengers than any one in particular.
He is now working on a show for the Alliance Francaise in Manila next March. And he's trying a new medium: steel. 'I'm tinkering rather than going full flow with metal sculpture. It's still evolving, but I'm enjoying working with new shapes.'
