Requiem for a great artist
Requiem for a great artist
Updated 11:35pm (Mla time) Oct 17, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 18, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
THE DEATH anniversary of painter Hugo Yonzon Jr. passed yesterday, Oct. 17, without any fanfare, not even a whimper, from the local art community. Yonzon was one of the best, most prolific, most versatile, fastest-working Filipino painters-and I've seen a lot of them. In fact, he should have been honored as a National Artist, but he had no clique, no lobbyists, no drumbeaters in the award-giving bodies.
Not that Yonzon didn't have any friends. He had plenty of them (and I'm proud to be one of them): journalists, fellow painters, cartoonists, illustrators, art collectors, gallery owners, etc. But unlike some artists who park themselves for hours at the desks of cultural editors of newspapers gossiping and wasting time, Yonzon had no time for that. He was too busy providing for a huge family.
For unlike other painters, who usually had regular 8-5 jobs as principal means of livelihood (as art teachers, or as newspaper, magazine or advertising agency artists, etc.) while doing
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some painting on the sideline or as a hobby, Yonzon, for the most part of his career, lived entirely from his paintings. During his early days, he was the art director of Adcraft, a pioneering advertising agency, but he soon left the job to draw editorial cartoons, comic strips and illustrations for newspapers and magazines-and yes, to paint.
He was a member of the triumvirate Malang-Larry Alcala-Yonzon, versatile cartoonist-painters who were not only contemporaries but were very close family friends, compadres, gambling buddies, billiard addicts, barkada, partners in sexcapades, etc. Until Alcala got married to a beautiful salesgirl of Aguinaldo's Department Store-whom Alcala courted almost daily with his two partners behind him as morale support-the triumvirate enjoyed the bohemian night life together.
Together with other cartoonists, they set up the Bughouse art gallery in Mabini. That was back in the '50s, when the Philippine Art Gallery on Arquiza was the center of the Philippine world of modern art. The cartoonists envisioned the Bughouse as the gallery for cartoons as PAG was for serious art.
The PAG it was that popularized most of the present icons of neo-realist art: Vicente Manansala, Hernando R. Ocampo, Cesar F. Legaspi, Arturo Luz, Fernando Zobel, Ramon Estella, etc.-and a young cartoonist who dared branch into serious painting, Malang.
The PAG, run by writer Lyd Arguilla, had a "feature wall" for young artists, and during one exhibition of the latest neo-realist paintings, several of Malang's first tentative attempts at serious art were featured there. There were only about two dozen pieces, and all of them were tiny, measured in few square inches. Malang aptly called them "miniature paintings." But they were beautiful pieces, in bright decorative primary colors, even if their subjects were mostly barong-barongs, squatters, sidewalk vendors-all visible from the second-floor windows of the newsroom of the Manila Chronicle on Aduana Street, Intramuros, where Malang worked as an artist.
Malang was then drawing his Kosme the Cop comic strip in the daily and the spot cartoon Chaingang Charlie in the weekly This Week Magazine; and painting his "miniatures" while waiting for the editors to assign him art work for the evening.
At this time, Yonzon was already into serious painting, but he was also drawing cartoons and comic strips (Sakay and Moy) for the Manila Times and comic magazines after his work at Adcraft. Every afternoon, he would walk from Adcraft on Dasmarinas, across the Jones Bridge, to the Chronicle in Intramuros to have merienda with Malang and us in the This Week staff for ideas for their cartoons. Alcala, who was drawing Kalabog en Bosyo, Siopawman, Tipin, etc. for the comic books, was also into some serious painting, mostly watercolors, at that time, but he soon gave that up to devote all his time to comic strips.
During these sessions, the cartoonists picked our brains for ideas for cartoons, and usually they left in the evenings with the next day's cartoon output already clear in their minds.
When we all left the Chronicle during a labor dispute and dispersed to different newspaper publications, Malang concentrated on painting-very successfully (all his exhibits were sold out). When I went to The Evening News and later the Daily Express, Yonzon followed as editorial cartoonist and illustrator. Alcala stuck to his comic strips but at the Express, I assigned him to make the full-page "Slice of Life" on the back page of the Weekend Magazine.
It was at this time, meanwhile, that Yonzon produced his best and most numerous paintings. While waiting for work at the Evening News and Express art departments, he would use the time to paint his oils on canvases, exchanging stories and banter with the other artists all the time. Before anyone noticed, the painting was finished, which was immediately bought by collectors. At home, he painted in his garage, which he converted into a studio. The paintings were bought even before they were finished. During his lifetime, Yonzon held very few one-man exhibits because he could not accumulate enough paintings for such a show. They were all snatched up by buyers before the paint could even dry on the canvas.
All three-Malang, Yonzon and Alcala- have been nominated separately for National Artist. They all deserve it. The question is who should get it first; the latter two are dead. My suggestion is to give it to all three of them at the same time. Or to give it to them as a triumvirate, for together they combined the arts of cartooning and painting to their greatest glory.
Updated 11:35pm (Mla time) Oct 17, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 18, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
THE DEATH anniversary of painter Hugo Yonzon Jr. passed yesterday, Oct. 17, without any fanfare, not even a whimper, from the local art community. Yonzon was one of the best, most prolific, most versatile, fastest-working Filipino painters-and I've seen a lot of them. In fact, he should have been honored as a National Artist, but he had no clique, no lobbyists, no drumbeaters in the award-giving bodies.
Not that Yonzon didn't have any friends. He had plenty of them (and I'm proud to be one of them): journalists, fellow painters, cartoonists, illustrators, art collectors, gallery owners, etc. But unlike some artists who park themselves for hours at the desks of cultural editors of newspapers gossiping and wasting time, Yonzon had no time for that. He was too busy providing for a huge family.
For unlike other painters, who usually had regular 8-5 jobs as principal means of livelihood (as art teachers, or as newspaper, magazine or advertising agency artists, etc.) while doing
Print this story
Send this story
Write the editor
View other stories
some painting on the sideline or as a hobby, Yonzon, for the most part of his career, lived entirely from his paintings. During his early days, he was the art director of Adcraft, a pioneering advertising agency, but he soon left the job to draw editorial cartoons, comic strips and illustrations for newspapers and magazines-and yes, to paint.
He was a member of the triumvirate Malang-Larry Alcala-Yonzon, versatile cartoonist-painters who were not only contemporaries but were very close family friends, compadres, gambling buddies, billiard addicts, barkada, partners in sexcapades, etc. Until Alcala got married to a beautiful salesgirl of Aguinaldo's Department Store-whom Alcala courted almost daily with his two partners behind him as morale support-the triumvirate enjoyed the bohemian night life together.
Together with other cartoonists, they set up the Bughouse art gallery in Mabini. That was back in the '50s, when the Philippine Art Gallery on Arquiza was the center of the Philippine world of modern art. The cartoonists envisioned the Bughouse as the gallery for cartoons as PAG was for serious art.
The PAG it was that popularized most of the present icons of neo-realist art: Vicente Manansala, Hernando R. Ocampo, Cesar F. Legaspi, Arturo Luz, Fernando Zobel, Ramon Estella, etc.-and a young cartoonist who dared branch into serious painting, Malang.
The PAG, run by writer Lyd Arguilla, had a "feature wall" for young artists, and during one exhibition of the latest neo-realist paintings, several of Malang's first tentative attempts at serious art were featured there. There were only about two dozen pieces, and all of them were tiny, measured in few square inches. Malang aptly called them "miniature paintings." But they were beautiful pieces, in bright decorative primary colors, even if their subjects were mostly barong-barongs, squatters, sidewalk vendors-all visible from the second-floor windows of the newsroom of the Manila Chronicle on Aduana Street, Intramuros, where Malang worked as an artist.
Malang was then drawing his Kosme the Cop comic strip in the daily and the spot cartoon Chaingang Charlie in the weekly This Week Magazine; and painting his "miniatures" while waiting for the editors to assign him art work for the evening.
At this time, Yonzon was already into serious painting, but he was also drawing cartoons and comic strips (Sakay and Moy) for the Manila Times and comic magazines after his work at Adcraft. Every afternoon, he would walk from Adcraft on Dasmarinas, across the Jones Bridge, to the Chronicle in Intramuros to have merienda with Malang and us in the This Week staff for ideas for their cartoons. Alcala, who was drawing Kalabog en Bosyo, Siopawman, Tipin, etc. for the comic books, was also into some serious painting, mostly watercolors, at that time, but he soon gave that up to devote all his time to comic strips.
During these sessions, the cartoonists picked our brains for ideas for cartoons, and usually they left in the evenings with the next day's cartoon output already clear in their minds.
When we all left the Chronicle during a labor dispute and dispersed to different newspaper publications, Malang concentrated on painting-very successfully (all his exhibits were sold out). When I went to The Evening News and later the Daily Express, Yonzon followed as editorial cartoonist and illustrator. Alcala stuck to his comic strips but at the Express, I assigned him to make the full-page "Slice of Life" on the back page of the Weekend Magazine.
It was at this time, meanwhile, that Yonzon produced his best and most numerous paintings. While waiting for work at the Evening News and Express art departments, he would use the time to paint his oils on canvases, exchanging stories and banter with the other artists all the time. Before anyone noticed, the painting was finished, which was immediately bought by collectors. At home, he painted in his garage, which he converted into a studio. The paintings were bought even before they were finished. During his lifetime, Yonzon held very few one-man exhibits because he could not accumulate enough paintings for such a show. They were all snatched up by buyers before the paint could even dry on the canvas.
All three-Malang, Yonzon and Alcala- have been nominated separately for National Artist. They all deserve it. The question is who should get it first; the latter two are dead. My suggestion is to give it to all three of them at the same time. Or to give it to them as a triumvirate, for together they combined the arts of cartooning and painting to their greatest glory.
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