Glenn Bautista
Visual Artist: GLENN A. BAUTISTA
Personal Art Collection:
I am looking for a benevolent sponsor/patron who appreciates my works, a gallery/museum (permanent, if possible) for my "300+ Personal Artwork Collection, from 1963 to 2009 & Future Artworks"-
Glenn A. Bautista
(glennbautista(dot)com).
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Visual Artist GLENN A. BAUTISTA
GLENN A. BAUTISTA was born on March 20, 1947 in the little town of Orion, in Bataan, a province in Central Luzon, Philippines. Bataan became historically infamous due to the Bataan Death March during World War II that ended in 1945 when the Americans liberated the Philippines from the Japanese occupation. Obviously, Glenn was a postwar baby. His father became a minister of the United Methodist Church in 1945 and served for 39 years. His mother was a deaconess, a graduate of Harris Memorial College, the only deaconess training school of the United Methodist Church in the Far East. Glenn is the seventh of nine children in the family.
He completed his education in Manila. His elementary education at the Sta. Ana Elementary School, his secondary education at the Union High School, and his college education at the University of Santo Thomas (UST), the oldest university in the Philippines, and at the University of the Philippines (UP), the highest ranked and only national university in the Philippines.
In 1965, Glenn A. Bautista was an advertising student at the University of the Philippines. It was during this time that his father, the Rev. Ignacio P. Bautista, encouraged him to submit an entry to an International Art Competition sponsored by an organization for World Literacy and Christian Literature in New York. Out of sixty-four entries from all over the world, Glenn Bautista's "The Event" was declared winner.
It was also in 1963-65 when both his UST (University of Santo Thomas) and UP (University of the Philippines) Fine Arts school plates led to many of his major artworks. One of them was the "Rizal Monument", a pen and ink drawing composed of the complete thirty-nine poems of the Philippine national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, and one song, the “A Orillas del Pasig”. This song was translated into English by his late friend, Alfredo Veloso. The Rizal pen and ink drawing was on exhibit for about 6 years at the Jose Rizal Shrine at Fort Santiago in Manila upon the request of the former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Romualdez Marcos.
After about a year of study at the University of Santo Thomas, Glenn transferred to the University of the Philippines, College of Fine Arts where he was a consistent university scholar.
In 1967, Dean Jose Abad Santos of the U.P. College of Law, together with Atty. Israel Bocobo, commissioned Glenn to do a mural in honor of the late Justice Jorge Bocobo, the fifth president of the University of the Philippines. The mural is still on display at the UP Law Center library. The Bocobo art work was made into a Philippine stamp but is now considered a very rare stamp collection.
In 1969, Glenn graduated from the University of the Philippines with a Certificate in Fine Arts, Major in Advertising. That same year, he was invited by Curator Emmanuel Torres to hold his first One-Man Show at the Ateneo Art Gallery. Even then, he displayed great talent in the use of various media. From 1965 to 1968, and again in 1975, he worked with oil on canvas. At other times, he worked with pastels, watercolor, and mixed media. Much of Bautista's work is permeated with religious symbolism reflective of a deep personal piety. His early paintings dwelt on commonplace objects infused with symbols of Christian principles and teachings.
His show at the Lor Calma Gallery at Paseo de Roxas, Makati marked the beginning of his "Inner Light Series" consisting of 40 art works in oil each on a square format of 50.8 cm x 50.8 cm canvas. The "Inner Light Series", an extension of his first show dealing with commonplace subjects, explored images of wood, tree trunks, and tree rings. Included in the series was one big piece entitled "Woodscape" which won the Critics' Choice, an annual selection sponsored by the Ma-Yi Gallery under Susan Calo-Medina.
In 1970, under the Crusade Scholarship of the United Methodist Church, New York, NY, Bautista went to the United States to continue his art studies at the Brooks Institute of Fine Arts in Santa Barbara, California. After two years, upon the invitation of Curator Ronald Kuchta, he joined a Group Art Exhibition with John Cushing and Stephen Samerjan at the Santa Barbara Museum of Arts. At the same time, the works of the Old Master Impressionist Childe Hassam were on display at the next gallery room. Glenn's works consisted of abstractions in diptychs and triptychs done with the airbrush.
His participation at the Art Exhibit was critically acclaimed which earned him a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts, Major in Painting, with honors. Subsequently, he held shows in New York at the Philippine Consulate and at Scarritt College in Nashville, Tennessee. As a Crusade Scholar, the Crusade Scholarship of the United Methodist Church in New York commissioned him to do a mural entitled "America". In Nashville, he was also commissioned to do the "Laskey Mural" for the founder of Scaritt College in honor of Virginia Davis Laskey.
Glenn Bautista returned to Manila in 1971. Eventually, he held a show at the Rustan's Galerie Bleue. Then First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos was the guest of honor. In this exhibit, he came up with large wall-size "Abstractions" executed with the airbrush. In 1974, he was a Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Thirteen Artists' Awardee. In 1976, he displayed his completed series entitled "In Search of the Divine" at the Sining Kamalig. The presentation was highlighted by a night of music with the Madrigal Singers and poetry readings by Virgie Moreno, Larry Francia, Bobby Cuenca, Betsy Romualdez and Henry Francia.
From 1980 to 1985, Bautista stayed in Dusseldorf, Germany where he studied lithography at the Kunstakademie under Professor Rolf Sackenheim, a prominent artist of the city. Under the able tutelage of a Polish teacher, Maria Buras, he continued to master the lithographic process of printmaking. Honorary Consul Karl Heinz Stockheim of the Philippine Consulate in Dusseldorf commissioned him to do a mural entitled, "Pilipinas". He also did other highly original works. Among them was a series of art works, "Cut-Outs in Paper & Wood" in 1985 now permanently exhibited at Galerie Art 204 at Rethelstrasse, Dusseldorf (as a guest artist) along with the company of a distinguished and influential yet controversial German artist Joseph Beuys, and the masters Feininger, Ernst, Chagall, Dali and Miro." All through these years, Glenn spent time with Joseph Beuys at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf, Germany together with professors Maria Buras and Rolf Sackenheim. Joseph Beuys passed away after his return to the Philippines.
Art Critic Alice G. Guillermo summarizes Glenn's Art - - "In time, it became clear that the art of Glenn Bautista is not one for the academically conservative and tradition-bound. Rather, it extends an invitation to the adventurous, being avant-garde in a quite inconspicuous way. More so, it has made a lasting mark on figurative art in the country today for it has opened numerous options. It has also engaged in the lively, exciting and highly original synthesis. Bautista, at present, devotes much of his time giving free art lessons to children and adults in Paranaque City. Glenn was a nominee for the prestigious 2005 National Artist Award of the Philippines in the field of Visual Arts as a result of recommendations received from some civic and religious organizations where he has been involved with who are appreciative of his works and efforts."
A recap of Bautista’s various art works since 1964 include the following: A series of religious paintings in oil that include the Bocobo Mural still on display at the UP Law Center, later printed as a Philippine stamp, the Rizal Monument (pen & Ink / 66-67), Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo Centennial Mural Winner (69), Sketches Series (65-72) , Portraits (67-80), Inner-Light Series (75), Prudential Bank / Makati branch / Mural (75), In Search of the Divine (76), Lithographs and Etchings (76-85), Nude Pastels (78-79), Art Photos (80-82), Pencil Pastel Drawings (80-82), Cogon-Abaca Drawings (81-82), Zenscapes (80-81), Collages - Rubbings (80-83), Soft pastel compositions ( 82-83), "Pilipinas" / Philippine Consulate, Dusseldorf, Germany (83), Creation Photo Series (82-88), Bas-Reliefs (84), Nature and Technology / Cosmic-Futuristic Compositions (81-85), Watercolors (82-88), Sculptures (80-90), Cut / Torn / Folded works in paper (89), New Earth Series (92-95), "Golfscapes", The Manila Southwoods Golf & Country Club (94-97), Abstractions in oil (98), Christian Art (91-95), and Digital Art Series (98-2005), Heaven & Earth Series / Large-format Oils (2005-08).
