Welcome to the blockbuster exhibit—Manila style.

Leave it to the private collector to take up the slack of our state museums.  Lucky for us, Paulino Que has always been generous about bringing out portions of his collection for the public’s delectation.  As Manila’s biggest collector of Filipiniana, no important exhibit is complete without something of Paulino’s on view, be it one on religious ivory figurines or pre-Hispanic terracotta ossuaries.

In the 1970s, he acquired a Jose Joya abstract that whetted his appetite for art, leading him to form the largest repository of Philippine modern art paintings in the country.  His passion has extended to contemporary art; he continually adds to an already unrivalled trove.

A unique sub-collection to this vast hoard of treasures is Paulino’s selection of self-portraits.  They include priceless pieces such as that of Damian Domingo’s, a miniature of the founder of the Academia de Dibujo, the first formal institution for studying art established in Manila during the Spanish colonial period.  Another gem: that of Juan Luna, the controversial revolutionary, who depicted himself foil in hand, ready to fence, looking at the viewer from the side.

Imagining Identity is an exhibit of 100 self-portraits from Filipino artists, a whole range that extends to the most important and the most exciting, from the stalwarts of our art history, to the most avant-garde of our contemporary practitioners. The portraits had been divided into three sections, the younger, more current artists fill Finale Art Gallery’s cavernous ground floor (the Tall Gallery), while those of the National Artists and others of their generation were installed in the second floor.  The walled-off Video Room has been set aside for the oldest works.

Almost all of the pieces are paintings.  The salon style installation in the Tall Gallery can overwhelm with the sheer variety of images that assault the viewer.  I preferred the pieces on the second floor, those of our modern masters, not in the least because there haven’t been many opportunities to see them before.  The ones of Jaime de Guzman and Lyd Arguilla, in particular, I loved.  De Guzman’s because it gives a face to the creator of those angry murals in the CCP’s collection, and Arguilla’s for its art historical value.

It helped to come back after opening night to take in the works without the bustle and the crowds.  Jojo Legaspi’s depiction of himself is typically irreverent (blasphemous even), but definitely singular. I enjoyed how Maria Taniguchi looks at herself through patterns and mirrors and also Mariano Ching’s references to his Chinese ancestry via an intricately detailed pyrograph on wood of his animal zodiac sign.  You have to hand it to Maria Jeona Zoleta, the youngest artist in the selection.  She unabashedly painted herself as the Lady of Peñafrancia—albeit an unapologetically impious incarnation.

Paulino once told me that a real collector can’t stop himself as there are always beautiful things to acquire.  For the sake of Filipino art lovers who look forward to these sightings from his personal collection, we certainly hope he doesn’t.

Imagining Identity, 100 Filipino Self Portraits, A Selection from the Paulino Que Collection runs from 8 February to 3 March 2012 at Final Art Gallery, Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, Pasong Tamo (Chino Roces Avenue), Makati City.  Phone:  (632) 810-4071 or visit www.finaleartfile.com

For other posts on The Paulino Que Collection, click here for modern art paintings and here for contemporary art paintings