Posted on December 16, 2009 - by Vic

A legacy of an artist in Batanes

Batanes should appeal to hardy, outdoor types who enjoy hiking over hills and vales, swimming and discovering a unique local culture, rather than indulging in material pleasures. And forget five-star hotels, for you will not find them here.

This northernmost province is not only close to my travel interests but also because I had the pleasure of personally having known one of their prominent local artists by name of Pacita Abad. I have heard about her among art circles in Manila and Jakarta until we became acquaintances due to my public relations work with the ASEAN secretariat, a regional organization based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

I used to be based in Jakarta working as the information officer of the ASEAN, the regional political grouping of Southeast Asian countries. Another cousin Menardo Abad, or more popularly known as Jun, was also a colleague and my immediate boss at the secretariat. We were both living in Jakarta which afforded me to meet up with her on both social and diplomatic occasions. I remember on several instances attending her exhibit openings at private galleries as well as the national gallery in Jakarta, Singapore or Manila, where she represented the Philippines on several occasions.

It was however in Indonesia where she opened a big exhibit in Jakarta at the National Gallery, launching her collection of 45 Javanese folklore characters inspired dinner plates, cups and saucers. Like many of her endeavors, the plate exhibit was a first of its kind and the sale of this new art form was a welcome treat to the Jakarta art scene as well as Javanese curio collectors. The exhibition was a big success and established her name in both local and international art scene.

Pacita, as she was fondly known, established herself for her works in trapunto, which includes traditional textiles and local materials and seen from a distance, have the appearance of oil paintings, abstract with strong designs and colors.

It can be said that Pacita Abad was a prolific and eminent artist. She was fond of traveling, learning new things and taking inspiration from her visits. She has gone to Kerala in southern India three weeks after her initial radiotherapy course. She’s been to several art capitals in the world including Bali, Borubudur, Penang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Beijing just to observe and later on paint her impressions of the places that she has visited.

On the night of December 7, 2004, she passed away two months after her 58th birthday and three years after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Despite her bout with the disease, she remained productive and full of life, never letting the disease crush her spirit. It is said that she never said a negative word during her brief remissions and considered her disease as a “minor irritation.” For Pacita, the best treatments were art and life – painting, listening to bliss music, drinking champagne with friends and travels are my best therapies,” she said.

In May 2003 Pacita went back to her native Batanes to oversee the groundbreaking of her new stone studio. Then she conducted exhibits in Indonesia, Norway, Finland and Sweden among others. The essay “Passion to Paint: The Colorful World of Pacita Abad” in her last book Pacita described her wonderful energy as one who could not be stopped. When her doctors saw her moving her right arm back and forth, she claimed she was just exercising her painting arm so she would be ready when she returned to her studio. Such was the incredible creative energy and joyful spirit of Pacita, coloring the world with an insatiable passion to paint.

The artist has made various exhibits abroad including the Washington Public Art Gallery, The Philippine Center in New York, the Hong Kong Visual Art Center and of course the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. In her life, Pacita has created more than 3,500 works of art.

Pacita’s studio in Basco is part of the Pacita Abad foundation, or the Fundacion Pacita, as it is locally know which was established to continue Pacita Abad’s artistic legacy. Visitors to the island must visit this latest attraction of the island province including its nearby lodging facility. It sits at the edge on one of the Ivatan islands where visitors can savor a sweeping view of a rocky ridge, the Babuyan channel and the South China Sea across the horizon. Her works are just mounted on tarpaulins and just describes the work and aims of her work. Aptly called The Fundacion Pacita, it “aims to support the development of committed painters, printmakers, sculptors and multi-media artists under the age of forty from emerging Asian countries, and facilitates the study and understanding of Pacita’s artistic career.