Kundiman' at Pinto: Antonio Catral Leano's Patriotic Love Song

The sprawling Pinto Art Museum, nestled in the hills of Antipolo, has long been a magnet for art lovers. We love meandering along its stone pathways and steps, past gardens with uncommon blooms and tranquil fountains.

- VICKY VELOSO-BARRERA

All paths lead to seven galleries and three cafes, tucked into a setting that feels like Greece. The visual art and installations are expressive of today's social realities and thought-provoking. Somber as these may be, we see mostly young people, in trendy attire, happily posing in the very photogenic corners.

Recently, Pinto founder Dr. Joven Cuanang opened his home right beside the museum grounds, for a special exhibit that took guests on a trip back in time. Visual artist Antonio Catral Leano presented "Kundiman," a sepia-tinted collection in oil that used old photographs from the 19th to early 20th century, combined with stamps, scribbles and vintage cigarette wrappers. The gorgeous results are his own kundiman, or love song to his homeland.

Dr. Cuanang's Spanish-style home in the late afternoon could not have been a better venue. Guests came dressed in Filipiniana finery for a tertulia, an old-fashioned gathering of art patrons and intellectuals with music and conversation.

At that time of day, the house's second floor balcony offered Manila's cityscapes to the west, bathed in the golden light of sunset while to the south, Laguna de Bay and mountains shimmered in silver.

"This exhibit is very special," said Dr. Cuanang, "because Antonio Catral Leano is one of the artists who won the Thirteen Artist Awards of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In this sepia-colored exhibit, art and heritage come together. Tony is a polymath, and he designed the structure of Pinto, even the gardens."

This means Leano is largely responsible for the whole experience one comes to enjoy. The white structures set on a slope amid old trees, dotted with ponds, art installations and even beds where one can gaze, lie back and gaze up at the skies.