IN THE SPIRIT OF CAMARADERIE A PHILIPPINE MODERN ART COMPOSITION To love a work of art is to follow the life of an artist - Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz
December 5, 1975, marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Galleria Duemila, the longest- running gallery in the Philippines today. The story of its humble beginnings is rooted in a great love story. It is a tale about Silvana Ancellotti, a 22-year-old Italian adventurer who fell in love with artist Ramon Diaz, his country, and its multicultural people. Her life in the Philippines began during a time of struggle against a menacing dictatorship—an era that saw an explosion of diverse expressions and visceral passions in the arts, a continuation of the post-WWII burgeoning modern art scene pioneered by the likes of Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, founder of the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP, 1948) and Lydia Villanueva-Arguilla, founder of Philippine Art Gallery (PAG, 1950). With financial support from Jaime Balthasar Diaz, Silvana’s father-in-law, she and her closest friend Christina Pagaspas Hagedorn pooled together a total of Php 40,000.00 to jumpstart Galleria Duemila 2000, an unplanned venture that neither of them thought would make it to fifty-years-old.
Of the thirty-seven artists featured in AVANTI SEMPRE AVANTI/FORWARD ALWAYS FORWARD, twelve of them were members of the now legendary Saturday Group (1968 -1978): Benedicto Cabrera (BenCab), Ed Castrillo, Jose Joya, Cesar Legaspi, Arturo Luz, Justin (Tiny) Nuyda, Hernando Ruiz (H.R.) Ocampo, Romulo Olazo, Onib Olmedo, Juvenal Sansó, Mauro (Malang) Santos, and Solomon Saprid. These artists—many of whom would later be recognized as masters in modern art and national artists amongst other peers—writers, art critics, collectors, gallerists, friends and acquaintances, professional and amateur models came through the Taza de Oro coffee shop doors in Ermita to eat, drink, and talk about daily life, art and even critique each other’s works. Their artworks presented here provide its viewers with insights into Silvana’s early attraction to Philippine abstract, minimalist, surrealist, and expressionist art and their impact in shaping her sense of aesthetics and taste. When asked about the degree of difficulty in selecting the artists included in this exhibition, her response was that she wanted to feature “artworks that speak to the soul.” Clearly an impossible task, nonetheless intuitive choices were made.
AVANTI SEMPRE AVANTI/FORWARD ALWAYS FORWARD is testimony to Silvana’s keen sensibilities as a viewer, gallerist, and above all, a lover of beauty and art’s ineffable ability to move the soul and evoke a plethora of emotions that range from elation to wonderment, leading to some form of action. Conceptually, each piece signifies a musical note in a lyrical composition. Each artist’s distinctive use of materials, techniques, space, visual concepts, and artistic languages resonates within each gallery and between the two.
Look at, listen to, and feel the paintings, mixed media, paper works, and sculptures contoured deep within the senses. Lean into each artwork’s title. They are portals for understanding conceptual and artistic expressions. These visual languages are slivers of life experiences, concerns with the times in which they have lived. They address cultural and social issues including but not limited to nature, gender, ritual, mythology, labor, and the sublime that resist didactic interpretations.
AVANTI SEMPRE AVANTI/FORWARD ALWAYS FORWARD invites its viewers into an art world not grounded in fame and market value, but rather in Galleria Duemila/Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz’s love for artworks that surprise, create a sensation of bewilderment, and heighten curiosities. At its core, this exhibition is her tribute, each work like music notes of a grand composition and their individual titles like lines in an ode. They celebrate the imaginative impulses, whimsical playfulness, tactile and tacit talents of artists whose careers propelled Philippine Modern and Contemporary Art into today’s vibrancy.
