April 14 - 26, 2009
Ayala Museum, ArtistSpace
Second floor, Glass Wing, Greenbelt Park, Makati Avenue, Makati City


About the Artists »
View Artist's Work »
Back to Artist's Listing »

“Mother and Daughter”, the first joint exhibition of Spanish-Filipina artist Carmen Westendorp Brias and her mother, esteemed painter Betsy Westendorp, will open at 6:30 pm at the ArtistSpace gallery of the Ayala Museum on April 4. 

This comes in the wake of the senior Westendorp's successful show ("Reflections") last month at the Mandarin Oriental Suites in Gateway Mall, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City, while Carmen returns to Ayala Museum after her 1998 solo exhibit. Arriving in Manila after eight years of absence, the Assumption-educated painter-sculptor-teacher will display her oeuvres with Eastern and distinctly Filipino themes, especially shipped from Spain for this exhibit. 

Grand dame Betsy Westendorp, who was the 2007 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Merit for Art and Culture Award, started her long and illustrious art career in the Philippines after she married Spanish-Filipino businessman Antonio Brias in the early 50s. In between her numerous well-received shows in Spain, Belgium, the United States and the Philippines, she regularly touches base in this country, her second home, where she gave birth and raised her three daughters and where her husband's remains are buried. The Westendorps, except Sylvia, another artist-daughter who lives in Chile, are based in Madrid. 

Starting to paint at an early age, Carmen had her works as a painter, mixed media artist and sculptor in exhibitions all over Spain. She had her first solo show at the Sotogrande in Cádiz in 1992. She studied painting restoration at the Artes Aplicadas a la Restauración de Madrid. She also runs a sculpture school in Madrid, where she lives with her 14-year-old daughter Karla. Betsy maintains her own painting school in their family home in Aravaca, a quite wooded area a few miles from the capital. 

Carmen's work has been described as a dwelling in a world in an onírico (dream state): while there are identifiable configurations of beings, objects and places, it intermingles with the variable, the evasive and the erratic. Yet, bold splashes of colors and a flair for dramatic composition also characterizes her work, suggesting the influence of Gaugin and Van Gogh in its vibrancy and playfulness, a hint of Kahlo without the pain and angst.  

For Carmen, painting is a way of finding new kinds of expression. And while she does that so well, she continues to go for themes and materials that are varied, wide-ranging and unpredictable: landscapes, animals, flowers, vegetation, still lifes, headboards, Sto. Niño icons, among others. Of late, she is experimenting with paraloid, a non-yellowing acrylic polymer used for consolidating wall paintings, to create texture and a sense of movement in her art. 

"She is more atrevida, braver, more daring," comments Betsy on her daughter. Carmen notes that her mother is more Dutch, more disciplined and organized, efficiency personified, while she is more Filipino at heart. This is attested by her 20 works on exhibit, which include her renditions of a monkey-eating eagle; local fruits; a varicolored, graffiti jeepney; nipa hut on a coconut grove and; what can be considered her most political take post-9/11, a Muslim boy wearing a shirt emblazoned with the word Love, perched atop a mother-of-pearl baul (trunk) with images of conches, toy horses and an American flag. 

Meanwhile, art critic Cid Reyes likens Betsy's pastoral depiction of nature to Impressionist Claude Monet, citing "the canonical trademarks of Impressionism – the flecks of multi-colored pigments transforming into a vibrant and rhythmical surface, itself dissolving into a misty atmosphere" that is present in her latest works. Betsy is also well-known for her “Atmosferografias” series immortalizing the Manila Bay sunset; her suites of barong-barong painting depicting the wooden stilt-shacks along the bay; her floral collection of orchids and hydrangeas, and; especially, for her expressive portraits of society figures, heads of states and royalty. This time, she will share a singular painting entitled "Happy Days" depicting her eldest daughter Isabel and her recently departed grandson Ian, "the love of my life," frozen on canvas as a luminous five-year-old.  

These two women trace their creative ancestry to Betsy's grandmother, the famous Dutch painter Betsy Westendorp-Osiek (1880-1968). Together, they have been featured in a 1985 collective exhibit of animalist paintings at the Sala Cultural Caja Madrid - Ciudad Real.  

Asked how she would depict Carmen in a painting, Betsy laughingly said she would present her in flight with the contents of her satchel spilling out all over the place -- which the independent, free-spirited youngest daughter often does, literally and symbolically. Carmen turns pensive and replied that she would paint her mother as clouds, which the still-bubbly octogenarian so loved to paint: she will always be there. 

“Mother and Daughter” is the first exhibition of Betsy Westendorp and Carmen Brias. The show runs until April 26 at the Ayala Museum, Paseo de Roxas, Makati City. For more information, contact Galleria Duemila at 831-9990, telefax 833-9815, email: duemila@mydestiny.net or visit www.galleriaduemila.com.