Monday, October 24, 2011

100 Masterpieces of Painting

Last year, I had a sudden yearning for art. The year before that, I was looking for spirituality, and I still am. It is, in my view, part of my own natural quest for meaning. It is my ascent in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Three promotions in five years have earned me a good salary for my age and making good investments as everyone was risk averse because of the global recession has meant a higher level of material security than I felt five years ago. I obviously would not have been promoted if I had not earned recognition at work so I do not want for affirmation. It was only a matter of course that I began looking for the true, the good, and the beautiful as Imelda or, more accurately, Plato would put it.

So for my 26th birthday, I bought myself a copy of Michel Nuridsany's 100 Masterpieces of Painting. It was quite expensive, but it was all worth it. I was treated to page after page of full color reproductions of 100 masterpieces of art. While I did go through a high school subject called Communication through the Arts, and six units of Humanities in college, I never really appreciated art until I read this book. It was an immersion into the creative history of humanity from the cave paintings of Lascaux to the post modernist works of the late 20th century. My appetite for art was only whetted even more by an encounter with Ramon Hofilena of Silay, art connoisseur and raconteur par excellence. I almost bought a couple of abstract works by Hechanova from him. Maybe I should have given in to impulse.

I have since continued to read about art. I have visited art galleries and museums and went to the latest ManilART fair. But aside from a painting of a mother and child given by my wife's friend to her when she was pregnant, I have yet to really start my art collection. Armed with more knowledge, and, hopefully, a more refined taste, I hope to fill my home with art so my kids will grow up seeing beauty in a world that is often ugly and painful.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Candide

Avant de travailler chez IBM, c'etait mon reve d'etre philosophe comme Voltaire pendant la Lumiere et Jean Paul Sartre et Michel Foucault au 20eme siecle. Ici aux Philippines, j'ai bien admire les intellectuels publique comme Randy David, professeur de sociologie et Winnie Monsod, mon ancien professeur aux sciences economiques. Je voulais faire mes etudes au troisieme cycle dans les grands universites au Royaume Uni - Oxford, Cambridge - ou aux Etats-Unis - Harvard, Yale, etc. Et puis, je voulais etre professeur dans l'Universite des Philippines ou j'enseignerais le science politique et ecrirais des livres, et, de temps en temps, ferais des commentaires sur les grandes questions du jour. Mais la vie s'est interpose. Je suis devenu pere a l'age de 22 ans et j'ai decide de faire carriere dans IBM. Cette semaine, je vais celebrer mon cinquieme ans dans la societe.

Dans l'oeuvre de Voltaire, Candide a perdu son optimisme apres des experiences incroyables et epouvantables. Il a appris que ce n'est pas vert que ce monde est toujours le meilleur de tous les mondes possibles. A la fin, il decide de s'occuper de sa terre, de cultiver son jardin. C'est par cela qu'il passe de la reflexion philosophique at a l'action concrete. Et moi aussi, j'ai passe de la reflexion vide et deprimante au travail, un travail fatiguant et ennuyant quelquefois, mais, en fin de compte, precieux et important pour moi-meme, ma famille, at la nation.