ONCE picked up, it took hours before his brushes were laid down.
National Artist for Visual Arts Carlos “Botong” Francisco was known to go on painting sprees that ran over meal times and rest, his family said, exposing himself to the visages of his artistic genius and the harms of lead-based paint. On March 31, 1969, he died of tuberculosis at age 57.
Fifty years after his passing, Botong lives on in the manifold masterpieces hung in collector’s homes, banks and museums, but none more so than in his hometown in Angono, Rizal, at Poblacion Itaas, where his art not only inspired generations of artists. Along with other masters, it helped carve a small town’s identity.
It is the third year that San Miguel Purefoods Culinary Center is hosting a trip to highlight food tourism, and Rizal is this year’s featured circuit. According to SMPCC Culinary Services Manager Llena Tan-Arcenas, the idea is to feature culinary gems of a province alongside its character. Previous stops included Cavite, Laguna and Baguio, which focused on history and heritage. For Rizal, it’s the arts.
Angono is billed as the “Art Capital of the Philippines,” a weighty title in a country rich with culture. Strolling its streets, however, would reveal the foundation of the claim.
Artworks are not just confined within walls, but featured on its structures’ exteriors as architectural quirks. A dragon installation casually snakes on a beam, while a village arc is adorned with designs of flowers and crops. Look at the house on the left and see a Higantes costume resting on the garage. Peep into the laundry shop at the right and on its walls hangs a painting of rice fields under the afternoon sun.
All these while its people are busy playing music or rehearsing dance at public spaces. A local tells us it’s also not uncommon to see idle tricycle drivers whipping out a notebook to sketch while waiting for passengers.
What’s most striking about these scenes, at this gallery of a town, is the casualness of it all. Art is a way of life in Angono, if not life itself.
Playing a major hand in this is the town’s favorite son, Botong. Along Doña Aurora, the street he grew up in, his figures of farmers and other characters depicting everyday life in the province line up the concrete walls via mural interpretations by Charlie Anorico.
Also on this street is Botong’s house and original gallery. His wife opened the space to the public as a museum shortly after Botong was conferred with the National Artist Award in 1973. The original document of the citation is available for viewing at the museum, citing Francisco for single-handedly reviving the forgotten art of the mural, and for remaining its distinguished practitioner for nearly three decades.
“Primarily a genre painter, he transcended the narrow medium, investing his murals and easels with the robust spirit and infectious gaiety of the simple people whose joys and sorrows he captured on canvas with enviable fidelity,” the document reads.
Managing the museum and entertaining guests for as long as he can remember is Botong’s grandson, Carlos “Totong” Francisco II. A dead ringer of his namesake, Totong was born after the death of his prominent elder. Nevertheless, he feels like he grew up with the man with all the stories handed down to him.
“As a person, ang lolo, napaka down-to-earth, madaling lapitan. He’s a friend to everybody,” Totong said, who’s also an artist and into abstract expressionism.
A framed magazine feature about his grandfather tackles his congeniality, saying if not tied down in his gallery, Botong was out in the streets in a trademark ensemble of t-shirt, corduroy pants and slippers, engaging in conversations about current events.
The museum also houses pieces that let guests in on the life of Botong beyond visual arts.
Displayed are movie props and sketches from when he worked in the movies as a scriptwriter and a set designer. He was part of classic titles, such as Manuel Conde’s 1950 film Genghis Khan, along with Prinsipe Tenoso, Ibong Adarna, Siete Infantes de Lara and the Juan Tamad series.
There are also photos of Botong with the Rover Scout Circle Philippines, of which he was an active member. It was his time with the group that the artist stumbled into a fateful discovery: the country’s oldest known work of art.
On a field trip between Binangonan and Angono with the boy scouts, Botong laid down beside a rock wall to rest. The noted muralist then noticed etchings of what appeared to be of primitive quality.
Upon his reporting to the National Museum, which prompted archaeological excavations, the drawings were determined to be up to 5,000 years old. There are 127 visible figures in total on the site, with drawings of human-like characters forming a circle with what appears to be a leader at the center, depicting what seems an ancient ritual. The drawings are now known as the Angono Petroglyphs (“petro” is Greek for rock, “glyphs” for carving).
This richness in culture, along with unique fiestas and the passion and talent of the people, are what kept Angono close to Botong’s heart, forging a loyalty so strong that he repeatedly refused offers from patrons to study abroad and take in Western influence.
“To the poet of Angono, art is wedded in the indissoluble bond with the soil from which it springs,” Botong’s National Artist citation reads. “No painter of his time has more closely attuned to the spirit of his land and people. His genius fed on this never-failing source of inspiration, and he remained to end of his life, the authentic interpreter of the timeless round of the daily existence in the villages of his native land.”
“Ayon nga kay lolo,” Totong added, “Angono ay liglig sa inspirayon. Kaya ayaw umalis kasi narito na raw ang lahat.”