80th Birth Anniversary of BenCab
Today, as we celebrate the 80th birth anniversary of National Artist for Visual Arts Benedicto Reyes Cabrera, born #OnThisDay in 1942, we feature the artist himself in his painting, “Self” from the National Fine Arts Collection (NFAC).
Completed in 1965, this acrylic painting is a self-portrait and an early work of the artist. It represents himself as a young man painted in an impasto of earth tone colors in brown and greenish-gray. This portrait is far from the usual thematic works and familiar images he had later launched. BenCab is a painter and printmaker.
Benedicto Cabrera was born in Malabon, Manila to Democrito Cabrera and Isabel Reyes, on April 10, 1942. At six months old, his family moved to Santa Cruz, and later to the district of Tondo, Manila. At a young age, BenCab’s older brother Salvador, an established artist, has influenced and exposed him to the arts. He won his first award when he joined a poster-making contest with a theme of human rights when he was in sixth grade at Balagtas Elementary School in Bambang. He enrolled at UP College of Fine Arts in 1959 but had to leave school and worked as an illustrator for magazines Liwayway and The Sunday Times before going full-time in painting. His early works depict scavengers, barung-barong, and Sabel, the woman scavenger in his area. Later his works reflect social commentaries on the American and Spanish influences. He held his first solo exhibition at the Indigo Gallery in Ermita, Manila in 1966. From the 1970s to the 80s, he held solo exhibitions and joined group shows here in the Philippines and abroad. Among these are the Six Artistes Contemporains Philippins en Europe in Paris; Philippine Printmakers at the Royal Festival Hall in London; Philippine Graphic Art exhibit in Munich; and the 8th Biennale Internationale de Arts in Valparaiso, Chile.
He has exhibited widely and has won awards. He received the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining in 1992. He was conferred with the Order of National Artist for Visual Arts in 2006.
This painting is on exhibition at Gallery XIX, Third Floor, National Museum of Fine Arts.
Follow this page for more features from the National Fine Arts Collection. The #NationalMuseumPH is now open to the public. View the link for the 360 degrees virtual tour of the nine select galleries at the National Museum of Fine Arts: http://pamana.ph/ncr/manila/NMFA360.html
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Text by NMP-FAD
Photo by Bengy Toda
© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines
