Visit to The Ayala Museum: History and Art

Yesterday I visited the relatively new, beautifully designed and built Ayala Museum in Makati, the financial district. It sits at one entrance to the Greenbelt Park, the most upscale shopping and eating area in all of the Philippines. Filled with the finest shops, great restaurants (let me tell you about the Malaysian restaurant "Banana Leaf" someday, and the great curries I've had there!) gardens, ponds and even an open air, tented chapel where services are often held, it is an opulent reminder that wealth does exist here! For a nice description of the area, see this blog: http://superpasyal.blogspot.com/2007/09/ayala-museum-makati-city.htm.

The juxtaposition of wealth and religion there is, well, interesting! Some day I'll talk about religion here perhaps, though not from going to church every Sunday!

In the first floor gallery in this history and art museum is a display of photos of paintings from the ceilings of many old Spanish churches in the Philippines. With over four hundred years of Spanish rule, there are a lot, as seen in the collection of paintings in the San Agustin museum, Intramuros. Of course I am thankful, for those churches also housed many old pipe organs, a few of which have been restored and are being restored by Diego Cera Organbuilders, here in Las Pinas. There are pictures of some of those in the collection of Organs in the Philippines. Also check out the Diego Cera website for more pictures.

What I most loved was the second floor exhibit of sixty 2'x4' dioramas showing and telling the history of the Philippines! Fascinating for me for all the small models (I have built many in the past during my house and garden designing years), also because of the wonderful models of native structures (I am fascinated by native architecture) to more modern, and also fascinating for its excellent history lesson portrayed exquisitely. Each diorama, full of highly detailed landscapes, people, animals, buildings, and paintings is a work of art, done by famous Filipino artists.

This display is a great history lesson, brought to life in colorful detail, as well as an incredible reminder of the long violent struggle these peoples endured to rid themselves of centuries of Spanish, American, Japanese, British attempts at domination! A short film at the end of the exhibit was an especially moving reminder of a peoples indomitable quest for freedom and self determination! With photos and short clips of political events since WWII, with film clips of protest marches, it was an emotional trip indeed. Seeing a people rise up against oppression and winning their freedom at all cost is always moving!

There is also a great display of model ships on this floor. Wikipedia has a nice description of the museum, too, by the way.

I must go back and visit! This one exhibit alone was worth the $11. entrance fee! And what a great history lesson, in color and in 3-D!

But it was only a beginning. The second floor featured beautiful 20th Century paintings by native Filipino master artists Fernando M. Zobel de Ayala (by whom the museum was conceived and named), Juan Luna, and Fernando Amorsolo. I especially enjoyed the Zobel works, contemporary studies of line in mostly black and white, some executed with hypodermic needle.

A pottery exhibit on the third floor showed much beautiful work. I'll admit to a rather hasty trip down the aisles. But the big surprise was the fabulous fourth floor exhibit of Filipino panned, processed and created gold artifacts. Come to find out there was gold in streams here. Who knew? Does it still exist?

From delicate, small pots to stunning jewelry, often created on extremely thin sheets of gold (to busy with the dead to speed their journey), to large pieces, such as a belt that weighed over 3,000 grams, the work was totally exquisite. Found in grave sites, and other caches, the exhibit shows an incredible richness of talent and craftsmanship!

Ok, I'll admit to a bias against gold because of the huge, ugly gold mining operations and how they destroy the land (remembering the awful looking gold mines in the Black Hills of South Dakota), as well as our seemingly insane need for it. What a shock for me to be so fascinated by this exhibit. The exquisiteness of the work, the designs, the opulence, the craftsmanship! Especially interesting was the ancient belief that wearing beautiful gold pieces would help one into the afterlife! So, guess where a lot of these artifacts were probably found! I hope the bearers had already made the journey! Many, however, were discovered in other places, in caches, etc.

I highly recommend a visit to this beautiful museum when you next visit the Philippines! In every way it is a classy place and a classy museum in a classy neighborhood (if you like that kind of thing).
Rod