This is a masterful and Fine Filipino Asian Modern Madonna Child Portrait Painting, Pastels on Paper, by renowned Cebu, Philippines Modernist painter and National Treasure, Manuel Panares (b. 1946.) This artwork depicts the endearing portrait of a beautiful young Filipino woman, representing the Virgin Mary, holding a young baby, representing Jesus in her arms. Both her, and the child close their eyes and enjoy a loving embrace. The woman is clothed in a vibrant blue shirt, with intricate indigenous tribal patterns throughout, and wears gold bangles on her wrist. They stand in a forest, with tall trees and tropical foliage visible in the peripherals. The overall image is quite powerful and moving and elicits feelings of joy and hope in the viewer. Signed and dated: "Panares 2004" in the lower right corner. Approximately 27 3/8 x 34 1/4 inches (including frame.) Actual visible artwork is approximately 18 1/4 x 25 1/4 inches. Very good condition for two decades of age, with some light scuffing and edge wear to the gilded wood frame. Priced to Sell. To my knowledge, this is only the third original artwork by Manuel Panares to ever be offered for sale on the secondary market or outside of a Filipino art gallery. Due to the large size of this piece, S&H costs will be unavoidably high. However, Free Local Pickup is also an option. Acquired from the sister of Manuel Panares, in Los Angeles, California. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks!
NOTE: Shipping to the Philippines is increasingly difficult and expensive, due to the eBay Global Shipping program excluding the country from their network. If you are a Filipino buyer interested in purchasing this item, please contact me for a quote before buying or submitting an offer.
About the Artist:
Born on December 9, 1946, PANARES started painting at three years old. At 65, he has accumulated a volume of work depicting the nuances of color, craft and style in his figurative paintings. He projects character, charisma, and soul within the context of history and culture. As an artist- witness, he paints the evolving profiles of his city – Sugbo (Cebu) in Central Visayas, and at the same time, records vignettes of tribal women of Mindanao, Southern Philippines.
PANARES’ passion for ethnology and history has led him to paint works as interpretation of museum artifacts, historical documents, giving life to significant men, women and events in history.
MEDIUM His primary medium is PASTEL and ACRYLIC.
His preferred subjects are the indigenous tribes of Mindanao and Sugbu a historical series, now online since 1996
While in Mindanao he was able to see and feel first hand the tribes of Mindanao, his paintings of such are accurate and correct and this is what makes his works unique.
He spends a couple of hours each day at the Southwestern University Museum to study and research historical events thus making him the pioneer in making works of art which portray accurately historical events in Philippine History.
His travels in the United States has greatly influenced his works after seeing the works of the masters in New York and Washington D.C.
PANARES has absorbed their essence and have found a way to produce a unique feeling in his own works and has had a series of one man shows around the Philippines before making a cultural mission to the United States showing the world what Philippine Art is.
A Cebuano painter whose beginnings in the arts during the late 60s started with several exhibitions in Manila and Cebu. He later moved to Mindanao to delve into the study of the tribal Filipinos. In the 70s to the late 80s his paintings were exhibited in Davao, Manila and Baguio. His return to the Cebu art scene started in 1980 with consecutive one-man shows up to the 1991 Sinulog Season.
In his hope to focus on the regional artists direction, he joined two painters from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, namely Sollesta and Taniguchi. The exhibition of these three painters provided a leap towards a new consciousness addressing the significance of the artists’ leadership as cultural workers in the art development in the Visayas.
In 1993, the global concern of the preservation of mother earth has been approached by the artists in the depiction of the indigenous tribes' universal search for survival; as countless of these natives are either displaced or dispossessed.
For PANARES, his vignettes in Pastels are stirring witnesses of the vanishing tribes of Southern Philippines, as its rain forests, waterfalls, mountains and valleys suffer the onslaught of urbanism and development.
The New York exhibition afforded PANARES with the opportunity to observe similar tribal realities and hopes to pursue deeper dimension in his art as an ethno-historian.
Early Influences
”I was three years old when I started painting. At eight, I saw an Amorsolo original. Kimsoy Yap, Jr. introduced me to the craft and style of Martino Abellana”.
”Much later in my mid-20's I developed a close friendship with national artist, Victorio C. Edades who became my inspiration and mentor. It was a professional partnership as I became his collaborative assistant of two significant murals namely Kasaysayan ng Lahi for Interbank Manila, and the Central Bank mural depicting economic development and agriculture in Davao (this mural is known to be the longest in Philippine art history). From Edades, I learned not only the nuances and philosophy of mural painting but also the fact that a painting should be powerful regardless of its size and that form and pattern is more important than modelling”.
“Paul Gauguin the artist has inspired me to go into the indigenous. We have the same love for the primitive tribes and our approach is the same. My fascination for the ethnic tribes started a long time ago when a hunter told me of a tribe deep in the forest of Mindanao whose women were fair-skinned and beautiful. Gauguin dreamt of Tahiti while still in Paris only to find that the Tahiti he dreamt of had long vanished as he came a hundred years too late. But he stayed and painted Tahiti as he wanted it to be. I too have stayed in Davao to be near my tribes to paint them as they ought to be; the beautiful fair-skinned tribe.
EXHIBITIONS
1521 - Sugbo Sa Karaang Panahon
His solo exhibitions of historical paintings entitled 1521, When the Santo Nino Arrived in Cebu, featured a panorama of pre-history of “Sugbo Sa Karaang Panahon”, and other paintings depicting tribal Mindanao and the environmental concerns of our country.
The Don Vicente Rama Memorial Historical Art Exhibit
On the occasion of the 74th Cebu City Charter Day,The Cebu City Government, through the Downtown Revitalization Project, presented the art masterpieces of Manuel Panares in a roadshow entitled: “The Don Vicente Rama Memorial Historical Art Exhibit” . The travelling exhibit visited selected public high schools in Cebu City.
Overseas cultural missions
He travelled on cultural missions to New York and Los Angeles in 1992. He joined a Group Show of 16 Cebuano painters at the Philippine Center in New York for one month. This was followed by another group show of US based Filipino American Artists who banded together in honor of Philippine National Hero on June 19, 1992 at the City Hall Lobby in Los Angeles. In 1996, he brought his paintings to the United States on a cultural roadshow at the Philippine Center, Philippine Embassy in New York, followed by exhibits in Washington D.C., New Jersey, Orlando, Florida and Los Angeles.
In 2006, his works were represented in a major 14th Annual Art Festival in Los Angeles, U.S.A.
His mission and vision is geared towards the discovery of the Filipino cultural soul, the pride of place, sense of identity and love for the Philippines.
Awards
Manuel Panares has been awarded twice in 2001. First, an achievement Award for his exemplary work as an artist in the field of Painting from Barangay Labangon, Cebu City where he grew up.
Second, an ALIBATA Award by the Global Foundation for International Education in Cebu Philippines was awarded to him for his outstanding contribution to the preservation of Philippine Art and Culture -- most notably for his unique paintings of the indigenous tribes of Mindanao and his collection of “Sugbo Sa Karaang Panahon” depicting Magellan’s Discovery, marking the beginning of Philippine History as recorded by Antonio Pigafetta in his written Account of Magellan’s Voyage while at the same time and making Cebu’s Discovery part of the global history of global exploration.
Murals
In Mural Painting National Artist, Victorio Edades became his inspiration and mentor in Davao. It was a professional partnership as he became Edades’ one of his collaborative assistants in his murals in the ”Kasaysayan ng Lahi” for Interbank, Manila; followed by a mural for Central Bank, Davao where he became his lone assistant depicting the agriculture and economic development in the late 1970’s. This Central Bank mural became the longest mural painting in Philippine History. According to Panares, “from National Artist, Victorio C. Edades, I learned not only the nuance and the philosophy of mural painting but also the fact that a painting should be powerful regardless of the size, and that form and pattern is more important than modelling.”
"A Manuel Pañares painting on Magellan's arrival Cebuanos were treated to a gallery of historical Cebuano paintings both at the refurbished Cebu City Museum curated by Connie Cuyos and at the 2nd floor of Fort San Pedro during the 'Gabii sa Kabilin'. The Fort San Pedro exhibit of Manuel Pañares paintings were all reproductions but they still managed to provide Cebuanos a remarkable visualization of their history. Paintings are indispensable in reminding us of our roots especially that most of our pre-Spanish history remain unwritten. How we dress and look are better imagined with the help of historical paintings like those of Pañares."
SUGBU SA KARAANG PANAHON BY MANUEL PAÑARES
Historical Paintings lost its popularity with the emergence of Impressionism when the artist broke the rules of tradition to paint light and color, the texture of nature that they saw around them.
Artists who painted historical paintings before the impressionist era were in demand as it was the call of the times to depict the accounts of the heroic adventures of the kings and rulers of Europe. Even Resurreccion Hidalgo and Juan Luna experienced and were involved in the making of historical paintings at the close of the 19th century.
Today most artists in Cebu follow the impressionist, abstract expressionist, cubism, and even the conceptual approach in painting.
There are a few painters who go into historical paintings unless they are commissioned to do so. Manuel Pañares has gone into the painting of the history of Cebu as a call of his time. He feels that a definitive visual representation of its history has to be done so that Cebuanos and all who would need to know more about the mores and tradition as described by writers could also be seen and understood in the painting.
This Exhibition of Recent Works of Manuel Pañares, Sugbo Sa Karaang Panahon is the 1st of a series of historical paintings, January 17-31, l997 at CAP Art Center #60 Osmena Blvd. Cebu City.
The Writings and Translation of the Work of Antonio Pigafetta donated by Dr. Alejandro Roces will be on display for the duration of the exhibition.
Pañares: Portrait of an Artist
By Christina Camingue Buo
Photos courtesy of Pañares archives
“A painting must possess life,” says Cebuano artist Manuel Pañares, who has devoted 40 years of his career to the creation of art and using it to witness the unfolding panorama of events in his time. By portraying and commemorating the struggles and lives of Filipinos, the Mindanao Tribes and the important and inspirational figures in our history, Pañares gives life to Cebuano/Filipino culture and history, thus awakening and raising the people’s cultural consciousness. The love of country springs from the heart of this artist, who knows his country and Cebu’s history, understands the teachings of our heroes and martyrs and fully appreciates our indigenous tribes as well as the sacrifices and accomplishments of our leaders and ancestors. His mission dovetails perfectly with his work as a painter. His passion and strength of character infuse his paintings and instill love of art and country into the hearts and minds of viewers. That is his greatest gift to the Cebuano and the Filipino people. He holds up the mirror to ourselves and helps us to make sense of who we are.
Born in Cebu on December 9, 1946, Emmanuel “Manuel” Pañares began drawing as soon as he could hold a carpenter’s pencil at age three. He had an instinct for art and developed that love of drawing which stayed with him until now. At eight, he remembers seeing for the very first time the art of Fernando Amorsolo, the country’s First National Artist (in Painting), who was a portraitist and painter of Philippine rural landscapes. His friend and fellow Cebuano painter, Jose “Kimsoy” Yap introduced him to the style and craft of Impressionist Martino Abellana, the Dean of Cebuano Painters, who also followed the classical traditions of his master, Amorsolo. But the influences that really shaped him were the works of French Realist/Impressionist Edgar Degas and Painter Paul Gauguin, which is evident in many of his earlier works, especially his pastel & acrylic portraits of the indigenous tribes of Mindanao.
It was the artistic rebel, French Painter Paul Gauguin who was influential in turning his thoughts towards the indigenous tribes of Mindanao. When he was a young boy, he had often heard stories from his neighbor, a hunter, about these beautiful native tribes of the mountains and forests in the south. So he went to Davao, Bukidnon, Pagadian and Cagayan de Oro to see the tribes, which was to figure in many of his works for over two decades. Though he made many trips away from Davao, it remained his home base for 20 years. His wife, Tonette, joined him after a 7-year stint abroad and became his invaluable companion whose perceptive eye had a decided effect on his art. Their home in Davao became a gathering place for the vibrant local arts community, including contemporary pop music artist Joey Ayala, known for his Filipino ethnic sound.
Life in Davao & the Tribes
Pañares began painting portraits of the T’boli, Manobo, Aeta and Bagobo tribes and composed idyllic paintings inspired by his encounters. He got acquainted with them, studied and lived with them. But just like Gauguin, he was to see vividly the crisis of cultural survival that the tribes face today. They were on the verge of extinction as they slowly embraced modernization. By portraying them with the utmost beauty, gracefulness and dignity, he breathed new life into these vanishing tribes. I don’t remember having ever seen alluring and ravishing images of a sleeping Bagobo maiden or a T’boli woman and child, painted with such delicate tenderness and sensitivity. Using his art as a tool for advocacy in cultural and tribal preservation, Manuel Pañares’ idealized paintings of the tribes offer a fresh outlook, a new way of seeing and understanding the beauty and dignity of these tribal Filipinos in Mindanao. In 2002, his paintings of the Tribes of Mindanao gained him the Alibata Award for his distinguished contribution in the Preservation of the Arts.
It was also there in Davao, where he met, in the late 1960’s, National Artist Victorio Edades, the Father of Philippine Modern Art, who took him under his wing, giving him useful advice and inspiring him to devote himself wholly to art. In this early training under his master and friend, Pañares learned the philosophy & techniques of mural painting.
Edades & Pañares worked together on two murals, namely: Kasaysayan ng Lahi for Interbank Manila, and the Central Bank mural which known as the longest mural in Philippine art history, portraying the balance between agriculture and economic growth in Davao.
In 1986 during the EDSA Revolution, his painting “Pilipinas Kong Mahal” (My Beloved Philippines) which depicted the social and political realities of that time was purchased by Davao-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Swiss Director Walter Berweger. It wasn’t long before Berweger and his team was ambushed by young Muslim rebels during a mission to Budlon in Maguindanao. The painting was returned to Pañares by Berweger’s fiancée. It became a testament for the times and a poignant reminder of little-known heroes who offered their lives for the sake of humanity.
Crossing Boundaries and Forging Links Abroad
Between the 70’s and 80’s, the somewhat shy, soft-spoken and self-taught artist, Pañares, was hosting one-man exhibits in Cebu, Davao, Pagadian, Bukidnon (Mindanao) and in Manila. In 1992, he joined 16 other Cebuano/Visayan artists on a cultural mission to the United States to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and to raise the profile of the artists from Cebu and the Visayas (central Philippines). In New York and Washington, there were many influences at work to affect him. He absorbed and transformed all that he had extracted from others into his own style and vision.
In 1996, Manuel and his curator-wife, Tonette pooled all their cultural resources to bring a one-man mobile exhibit, ‘Mindanao Tribes’, to the United States as a joint cultural program for the second generation Filipino Americans. Both were on a mission to raise awareness and promote advocacy for cultural and tribal preservation, with Tonette also conducting a lecture-series on the “Dignity of the Mindanao Indigenous Tribes” and other pressing issues such as environmental preservation, etc. The US tour commenced in New York (Philippine Consulate in Manhattan), then moved on to Washington D.C., New Jersey, Florida (Orlando), Los Angeles and Carson City in California.
In conjunction with this mobile show, Manuel’s advocacy received a major boost with the establishment of a virtual presence on the internet. The CAI Gallery (Cebu Artists Inc.) unveiled a website that allowed users from all over the world to view his paintings, “Sugbo sa Karaang Panahon” (Cebu in the Old Days).
His paintings showcasing the Philippine Indigenous Tribes and the collection, “Sugbo Sa Karaang Panahon”, which is based on the Pigafetta chronicle, received the ALIBATA Award for his outstanding contribution for the preservation of Philippine Arts and Culture from the Global Foundation for International Education (Centre for International Education) in Mabolo, Cebu.
His finely wrought portraits of the Philippine Revolutionary Heroes, Former President Cory Aquino, ASEAN Diplomat Narciso Ramos and his son, former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, Cebuano Senator Don Vicente Rama and the Mindanao Tribes were admired and collected by the Ninoy Aquino Foundation, the Freemason Society in Cebu, Mrs. Alfonsita Ramos, the stepmother of former President Ramos and former Cultural Officer of the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles (USA), Honorary Consul of the United States John Domingo, Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice and Senate President Marcelo B. Fernan, Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama, Art and Antique Collector Rene Mercado, 1730 Jesuit House Proprietor Jimmy Sy, Dr. Lydia Aznar Alfonso of the Southwestern University Museum in Cebu, Philippine Women’s College of Davao, St. Theresa’s College Cebu’s Folklife Museum and the Center of International Education (CIE).
* One of the highlights of Cebu City’s 74th Charter Day Celebration, The Don Vicente Rama Memorial Historical Art Exhibit – a road show for the young citizens of Cebu City, takes students on a tour of local history through art. Featuring Manuel Pañares’ paintings of local heroes and historic events, the traveling exhibit will be touring Lahug National High School, Florencio Urot High School, Don Vicente Rama National High School, Abellana National High School, Zapatera National High School, Tejero National High School, Gothong Memorial High School, Inayawan National High School, Labangon National High School and Don Sergio Osmeña National High School, among others, Feb. 22 until March.
The Historical Art Paintings of Manuel Pañares will also be on view at the Casino Español de Cebu on February 25, People Power EDSA Day.
Art as a Bridge to Understanding Culture and History By Christina Buo
The work of Cebuano Artist Manuel Pañares is a rich visual experience which breathes life into the early Philippine history. What is considered as a grey area between 16 th and 19 th century Philippines, Pañares sought, through research and study, to bring to life, in vibrant pastels & acrylic, the important figures and events in the earliest recorded history of Cebu, the site of the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
"After my exhibit on the Mindanao Tribes in the USA, I came back to Cebu in 1996 with a new mission - to immerse myself in Cebu history and translate valuable historical accounts and observation of excavated artifacts into paintings. To look into traditionally accepted historical accounts so I can discover the truth, in the hope of transforming and reshaping attitudes about our history," says the self-taught artist Pañares.
What place has Cebu or the Philippines occupied in the past? What is its international significance? In 1519, when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan set out on the very first circumnavigation of the world in search of the new Spice Islands or Moluccas, he was determined to find the passage to the Pacific, one that linked the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic.
On his journey, he reached the Philippine shores, landing in the north coast of Mindanao and the thriving port of Sugbo (old name for Cebu), where the local trader King, Humabon, provided them with abundant provisions. The tropical island was called “Islas de Los Pintados” (Islands of the Painted Ones) because of the tattooed, gold-ornamented natives. According to Pañares, the tattoos symbolize strength and bravery. The more tattoos a man has on his body, the more battles he had fought. It became the capital of the colony from 1565 to 1571. On June 1571, Spanish Conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi transferred the seat of government to Manila.
The discovery of the Philippines was part of a great, historic event. Magellan found the much-sought “westward route” to Asia, which led to a breakthrough in the knowledge that the world was round, not flat.
The work of ethnographer-artist Manuel Pañares sheds light and insight into this “little known” epoch in Philippine history, thus awakening and raising the people's cultural consciousness. He instills love of art and love of one’s country among his viewers and helps the Filipino make sense of his identity.
Photo: The artist's painting of Lapu-lapu, the Warrior King of Mactan, Cebu. On April 27, 1521, he defended his island of Mactan with his men, and defeated Magellan and his soldiers.
Manuel Pañares paints in pastel, the medium he uses to depict the life of the vanishing tribes of southern Philippines. During the early years of 1960 to 1970s, he participated in various group exhibitions in Cebu and Manila. This period honed him in formal drawing and painting through the encouragement of Tonette's long involvement in the field of arts and culture, and who would later become his wife and lifetime partner in Davao and Cebu in later years.
Pañares turning point came with his close friendship with National artist Victorio Edades especially with their collaborative mural work in Davao. Although Pañares extends himself with a distinct subject of his own, the Edades' world of abstractions & assertions for forms and pattern rather than modeling is however translated back into the illustrative and literal depiction of tribal themes.
Most important is Pañares subjects. In descriptive approach, it reflects a reality, which call for both local and global attention the respect for ethnological tradition and ecological spirit of conservation. And especially during Holy Week, he recounts that he had always been fascinated by the “Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ” even as a child. This fascination lasted through adulthood, to the years when he started to hone his art.
For many years, he would spend Good Friday painting the face of Christ crucified: sometimes serene, sometimes sorrowing, often suffering, but always accepting the will of His Father. All these paintings he gave away to whoever visited him on Good Friday.
Ten or so years ago, he decided he would paint Christ as He spoke the Seven Last Words and keep those paintings for his personal collection.
The artworks are subtly divided in half, the upper half with the face of Christ and the lower half with a comment on contemporary times. For the first words, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”, the scene below is people at war.
After Manuel finished these seven paintings, he stopped painting the face of Christ on Good Friday.
Art exhibit of Cebu's history visits six schools to honor Don Vicente Rama
February 22, 2011 | 12:00am
CEBU, Philippines - The city government through its Revitalization Project has chosen six schools to which it would bring the Don Vicente Rama Memorial Historical Art Exhibit as a tribute to the Father of the Cebu City Charter.
The exhibit showcases some 25 paintings of Cebuano Artist Manuel Pañares that depict the story of Cebu’s past that the city government believes should be known especially to the children. It aims to teach the children about Cebu’s rich history before and after the Philippines became a colony of Spain.
The schools include the Don Vicente Rama Memorial National High School, Abellana National School, Gothong Memorial High School, Don Sergio Osmeña Memorial National High School, Cam Lapu-Lapu High School and Mabolo National High School. The exhibit will stay in one school for two days.
Pañares’ wife, Tonette, the director of the Don Vicente Rama Memorial Historical Art Exhibit, said the project is a tribute to the crusade of the late Don Vicente Rama who was a historian and a freedom fighter himself.
The paintings of her husband, Manuel, are visual representation of information that historians have recorded in books and other materials.
Manuel spent the last 40 years of his life transferring history unto canvass. His paintings include the time Magellan came to Cebu, the first blood compact recorded between Magellan and Rajah Humabon, the mass baptism which turned into a massacre that killed Magellan, as well as other culture and traditions during the pre-Hispanic Cebu.
His artworks also include depictions of the Mindanaon tribe.
“So we hope that public schools will make a manual of local history so as the city council,” she said.
Cebu City will celebrate its 74th charter anniversary on Thursday. (FREEMAN)