Birth Anniversary of Roberto Chabet

On the occasion of the 85th birth anniversary of conceptual artist Roberto Chabet, the #NationalMuseumPh features “Ceche Series” from the 1974 Core Collection of the Philippine Center New York to honor the artist born #OnThisDay in 1937.

A multi-faceted artist, Chabet ventured into painting, printmaking, sculpting, stage designing, and writing. He was widely recognized as the father of conceptual art in the Philippines and acknowledged as the “most influential Filipino artist of the postwar generation.” He was highly regarded for his experimental art, evidenced by his drawings, collages, sculptures, and allegorical installations and question modernity. 

Chabet graduated in 1961 with a degree in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas. In the same year, he held his first solo exhibition at the Luz Gallery and won the top prize at the Art Association of the Philippines’ annual art competition. In 1968, he received a grant from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund (now Asian Cultural Council) to observe museum and collections practices, as well as contemporary art developments in the United States, Mexico, and Europe in preparation for his appointment as the founding museum director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). During his tenure as director of CCP, he initiated the first 13 Artists Awards, recognizing young artists whose works “showed recentness, a turning away from the past, and familiar modes of art-making.” Furthermore, he taught at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts where he nurtured and inspired generations of Filipino artists for over three decades from 1971 to 2002. 

Among the awards he received were the Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1972), the Araw ng Maynila Award for the Visual Arts (1972), and the CCP Centennial Award of Honor for the Arts (1998). His works are now part of the collections of the National Museum of the Philippines, Ateneo Art Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines, and several private lenders. 

“Ceche Series” is a noteworthy example of Chabet’s conceptual art exhibited in a collage of his own cut-up drawings, unlike his usual collages that utilized found materials and imagery. These works may be viewed at “The Philippine Center New York Core Collection of 1974: A Homecoming Exhibition” in Galleries XXVII and XVIII of the National Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition features a collection of 115 artworks by 52 Filipino artists which National Artist Arturo Luz gathered with the help of renowned designer Wil Fernandez for the inauguration of the Philippine Center New York on November 14, 1974. 

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Text and photo by NMP FAD

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