Ateneo de Manila University's Citation of Virgilio A. Aviado
Virgilio A Aviado
Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi
Virgilio Aviado is one of our leading visual artists and a most staunch proponent of fine printmaking in the country. His dedication is not only for his own development but for the community of artists who have taken on genuine interest in the art of fine print.
As one of the pioneers of contemporary printmaking, he is responsible for the introduction of many renowned artists to the art—among them, Santiago Bose, Raymundo Albano, Alfredo Liongoren, Mars Galang, and BenCab. Art luminaries such as Fernando Zobél, Roberto, Arturo Luz, Chabet, Cesar Legaspi, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, and José Joya all went to him for print editions of their works. Beyond traditional forms, Aviado also promotes the use of printmaking techniques and processes in contemporary and hybrid forms, making the graphic medium more accessible especially for young artists.
Aviado first discovered his gift for the visual arts in the summer art class of painter Araceli Dans, an art teacher then at the Ateneo High School, who introduced the Maning” Rodriguez Sr, the father of Philippine young artist to Manuel “Mang contemporary printmaking, who would leave a great and lasting influence on him. As a freshman in Ateneo, Pandy was one of the founding college members of the Ateneo Art Gallery (AAG) Arts Club, formed by Emmanuel Torres, AAG Curator. It was also there that he was introduced to the artistry of fine print through Fernando Zobél’s donation of works by European masters such as Francisco Goya, Rembrandt, and Pablo Picasso. Aviado signed up for once-a-week lessons at Rodriguez’s new Contemporary Graphic Arts Workshop in Manila where he progressed from woodcut to “etching in stone,” printing his work on the country’s first lithographic press imported in 1887, since donated to the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP). Pandy eventually decided to pursue fine arts and to study further under Mang Maning—first at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) College of Fine Arts, and later at the Philippine Women’s University (PWU). Being one of only two students, it was a great opportunity for Pandy to learn engraving and other intaglio processes such as etching and mezzotint, under the master.
His first solo exhibition at the Luz Gallery in 1967 drew rave reviews and Pandy was given a study grant by the art patron Fernando Zobél. Thus, began his European sojourn from 1969 to 1976 in Madrid and Paris where he trained and worked with various master printmakers. He worked as a printer at the Taller DOJ under Demitre Papaguerguio in Madrid and printed the etchings of modern Spanish artists at the Museo del Arte Abstrato Español, the museum Zobél had founded in Cuenca. Impressed by Pandy’s work, the Spanish master printmaker Don Antonio Lorenzo invited him to become his personal printer at Grupo Quince in Madrid. He later moved to Paris to learn some more at Le Plannage and the Edition Empreinte in Paris.
In 1976, Pandy came back to the Philippines and began his long career in printmaking. He also became a staunch supporter of other printmakers and made efforts to fine a homebase for the Printmakers Association of the Philippines (PAP) which Mang Maning founded in the ’60s. His dedication to the art of printmaking has resulted in hundreds of prints, a multitude of awards, and more than a hundred exhibitions here and abroad: in Europe, the United States, and other parts of Asia.
Aviado’s support for the printmakers gained wider base with his successive election as AAP president and appointment as director of the CCP’s Visual Arts Coordinating Center which allowed him to promote Philippine contemporary art and artists in the international art arena. In the mid-1990s, Pandy brought the attention of the CCP management to the need for a permanent workshop space for the PAP and its equipment. In 1995, the present PAP workshop at the Folk Arts Theater was inaugurated. Through this facility, local printmakers and artists have access to equipment. Moreover, this facility enabled PAP to organize regular workshops and host master printmakers from overseas. After more than two decades, a new generation of artists have taken interest on the art of printmaking.
His contributions in printmaking have been acknowledged in two landmark exhibitions. In 2004 the Ateneo Art Gallery organized Autoretrato: Selected Graphic Works, 1950–1990 as a 40-year retrospective and in 2014, the Ayala Museum, in partnership with Avellana Art Gallery and Crucible Gallery, mounted Graven Images: 1964–2014, Pandy Aviado, 50 Years of Printmaking. Both exhibitions featured over a hundred of prints from the artist’s personal collection as well as loaned works from cultural institutions and private collectors.
Pandy’s love for printmaking and support for printmakers continue unabated to this day. But his artistic practice extends beyond this field of practice. He is also prolific in painting, drawing, and mixed media and hybrid works. The latter specifically showcase his experimentation in combining printmaking processes and other visual art processes. In many ways, he has opened the traditional techniques of printmaking to be part of more recent and contemporary notions of art practice.
In one interview, he shares: “I consider what I’m doing my religion. When I’m printing, I go into a higher state of consciousness, so that I have flashes of insights into things in general. For me, it’s a mystical experience. Art takes me to another level of existence. It de-stresses me, charges me up, and connects things to one another. I basically do artwork to keep myself sane.”
For his enduring art practice, especially printmaking, his mentorship of hundreds of young practitioners of the art, and for his unparalleled body of work in the said art form, the Ateneo de Manila University proudly confers on Virgilio “Pandy” A Aviado the 2018 Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi award.
